Language Change: A Study of Northern Nigerian Sub-Regional Variety of English

The paper examines changes in pronunciation of some English sounds by some Hausa speakers of English and of course speakers of other languages that belong to Chadic subfamily of languages found in Northern Nigeria. The aim is to show how and why educated young Hausa (L2) speakers of English pronounce some sounds of English. Previously educated Hausa (L2) speakers of English used to pronounce dental fricatives, central vowels and centring diphthongs almost close to the Received Pronunciation (RP). Even the less educated substitute the voiceless dental fricative and voiced dental fricative with /s/ and /z/ respectively, whereas speakers of other languages in Nigeria, which mostly belong to Benue-Congo and Niger-Congo subfamilies, substitute voiceless dental fricatives and voiced dental fricatives with /t/ and /d/ respectively. The Ethnography of Communication underpins the study. The data for the work was obtained through observation and was analysed qualitatively using descriptive approach. The analysis reveals that now young educated Hausa speakers of English pronounce voiceless dental fricatives and voiced dental fricatives with /t/ and /d/ respectively. It has also been revealed that the specific factors responsible for the new pattern of pronunciation are pedagogical and sociolinguistic.

Keywords: Language Change Chadic Subfamily Dental Fricatives Central Vowels Centring Diphthongs

Author

• Mohammed Sada Bature
  Department of English and French,
  Umaru Musa Yar’adua University,
  Katsina State, Nigeria
  sada.bature@umyu.edu.ng