A Corpus-based Study of Patterns of Triphthong Realisation in Educated Nigerian English

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dc.contributor.authorAkinola, Aderonke
dc.date.accessioned2024-08-08T11:59:40Z
dc.date.available2024-08-08T11:59:40Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.abstractThe existence of triphthongs in native and non-native English varieties is a controversial topic. Therefore, this paper undertakes a corpus-based study of the patterns of triphthong realisation in educated Nigerian English (NigE) to identify the phonological processes employed in their realisation. Natural phonology has been adopted as a theoretical framework based on its practical application against formal or rule-governed phonological theories. The spoken part of the International Corpus of English (ICE), Nigeria of over 600,000 words provided data for the study. Using AntConc corpus analysis toolkit (version 3.4.4.0), 26 lexical items that contain English triphthong sounds were searched for in the ICE-Nig corpus. Only 20 of the items that occurred ten times and more in the corpus were eventually selected for analysis. These were analysed quantitatively by counting the tokens of occurrence and the number of speakers and converting them to percentages. The findings revealed that triphthongs are variedly realised in NigE, through natural phonological processes of syllabification, diphthongisation and monophthongisation as a ‘natural’ solution to the general difficulty associated with their pronunciation. This marks NigE as different from RP and validates its peculiarity and uniqueness. The study re-echoes the ongoing clamour for the codification and standardisation of NigE so that it can also occupy its rightful place as a variety of World Englishes.
dc.identifier.uriwww.journalofenglishscholarsassociation
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.run.edu.ng/handle/123456789/4069
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherJournal of English Scholars’ Association of Nigeria
dc.relation.ispartofseriesVol 26; No 2
dc.titleA Corpus-based Study of Patterns of Triphthong Realisation in Educated Nigerian English
dc.typeArticle
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