This paper undertakes the investigation of the disposition to stress of Nigerian users of English and the nature of spoken Nigerian English rhythm. The subjects of the study were sixty Nigerians of varied socio-economic, educational and ethno-linguistic backgrounds and a native (British) English speaker, whose productions from reading a passage and speaking freely for three minutes on a common topic were analysed metrically and statistically, using a modified version of the Metrical Theory, the Wilcoxon Matched Pairs Signed Ranks Test and the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). In spite of earlier classifications, the study assumes the existence of three varieties of spoken Nigerian English characterized by their disposition to stress and speech rhythm: the “Non-Standard”, the “Standard” and the “Sophisticated” varieties, which are individually different but collectively similar yet different from Standard British English, represented by the control’s performance. The existence of the three varieties is confirmed by the data. The common performance features include a tendency to stress more syllables in words than the native speaker. This feature, which is traceable to the influence of the syllable-timing rhythm of the subjects’ mother tongues, tends to characterize the Nigerian accent of English; but whereas the Non-Standard Variety conforms to the syllable-timing description the Standard and Sophisticated Varieties require further investigation.
2007. First language influence and final consonant clusters in the new Englishes of Singapore and Nigeria. World Englishes 26:3 ► pp. 346 ff.
Gut, Ulrike
2012. Standards of English in West Africa. In Standards of English, ► pp. 213 ff.
Gut, Ulrike & Robert Fuchs
2013. Progressive Aspect in Nigerian English. Journal of English Linguistics 41:3 ► pp. 243 ff.
Gut, Ulrike & Foluke O. Unuabonah
2022. Requesting Strategies in Nigerian and British English: A Corpus-Based Approach. In Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities, ► pp. 687 ff.
2023. L1 influence on stress placement by English language teachers in Anambra State (Nigeria). Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies► pp. 1 ff.
Obiegbu, Ifeyinwa
2018. Errors in Educated Nigerian English Usage. Language Matters 49:2 ► pp. 107 ff.
Oladipupo, Rotimi & Aderonke Akinola
2022. Nigerian English pronunciation preferences: A corpus-based survey of pronunciation variants. Cogent Arts & Humanities 9:1
Oladipupo, Rotimi O. & Foluke O. Unuabonah
2021. Extended discourse‐pragmatic usage of now in Nigerian English. World Englishes 40:3 ► pp. 371 ff.
2013. Reference Guide for Varieties of English. In A Dictionary of Varieties of English, ► pp. 363 ff.
[no author supplied]
2023. References. In Sounds of English Worldwide, ► pp. 354 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 february 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.