SIMPLIFICATION PROCESSES IN THE SPEECH PRODUCTION OF THE YORUBA SECOND LANGUAGE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how vowel epenthesis, vowel elision and consonant substitution, a natural deviation produce by Yoruba second language speaker is realized in the speaker's speech production. Data were collected from fourteen selected adolescents who participated in this study. A list of English words containing the manner and place of articulation were given to the speakers. Also, a text was given to the Yoruba native speakers. The models used for transcribing the words are Jowitt's model for second language pronunciation and Gimson's model for Standard English pronunciation. This study shows that a Yoruba- English speaker simplify English words by inserting a vowel sound to break clusters, deleting a sound or replacing a sound with another sound that is present in Yoruba phonemes. Yoruba native speaker has issues in pronouncing English words that have consonant cluster. During pronunciation, they insert a schwa /ə/ sound to break clusters, especially [gl], [bl], [br], [pl], [pr], [tr], [sp], [sk] and [st] clusters. They replace /ə/ with /a/ and /ʌ/ with /ɒ/. The native speakers substitute voiceless post alveolar fricative /ʃ/ with voiceless alveolar fricative /s/. They substitute voiceless post alveolar affricate /tʃ/ with voiceless post alveolar fricative /ʃ/. They also substitute voiced dental fricative /ð/ with voiced alveolar plosive /d/. These phonological processes enable speakers to pronounce words easily. Finally, these processes come as a result of the phonological difference between Yoruba language and English language. It also comes as a result of some background factors such as the family, school, speech community or the speaker's level of exposure to English language.