ON THE STATUS OF MGBOEJEỌGỤ SEGMENTAL PHONEMES (original) (raw)

2020, Journal of Acoustics Society of Nigeria

This study seeks to examine the various segmental phonemes of Mgboejeọgụ dialect of Igbo in order to establish its phoneme status. Mgboejeọgụ as an Igboid dialect belongs to the North-Eastern group of dialect clusters (Nwaozuzu, 2008), spoken in Ohaukwu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Elicitation of data is primarily from oral interviews with the use of a digital audio recorder alongside the Ibadan Wordlist of 400 basic items. The study adopts a qualitative descriptive approach in its analyses based on the perception of the identified segmental phonemes in the dialect. The study reveals that Mgboejeọgụ has nine (9) vocalic phonemes /a, e, ԑ, і, ɪ, o, ɔ, u, ʊ/ and thirty-six (36) consonantal phonemes /p, b, t, d, c, ɉ, k, g, kp, gb, kw, gw, ф, β, f, v, s, z, ʃ, ʒ, ɣ, ɦ, sw, ф, h, βh, ʧ, ʤ, m, n, ŋ, ɲ, ŋw, l, ɹ, j, w/. What is interesting in this is that some of these phonemes have not been previously reported in many Igbo dialects, including Standard Igbo. Although, the dialect does not permit consonant clusters and maintains vowels ending each syllable which makes it operate an open syllabic structure as is seen in many dialects of Igbo. The study first provides a basis for future acoustic analysis and a springboard for further dialectal studies in Igbo and other Nigerian languages.