Effects of Phonemic Dissimilarities on Yoruba Speakers of the English Language
Babatunde I Awe
Department of English
Federal Government Girls’ College
Akure, Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
Second speakers of English across the world have certain problems they grapple with, the most serious of which is phonological (especially when using native speakers’ standard as a yardstick). Because of the dissimilarities in the sound patterns of English and Yoruba languages, Yoruba speakers of English mostly found in the South-West Nigeria, and some parts of Kwara, Kogi and Edo States of Nigeria have problems with some phonemes in English. Inability to correctly pronounce words where such phonemes occur certainly bear some implications for international intelligibility. My objectives in this paper, therefore, are: to identify the levels of phonemic dissimilarities in English and Yoruba languages, and to examine the effects of these dissimilarities on the Yoruba speakers of English. In examining these dissimilarities using Contractive Analysis tools, I indentified certain phonemic features in English that are not attested in Yoruba language, which therefore, constitute problems for Yoruba speakers of English. These dissimilarities are categorized as long-short vowel differentiation, syllabic consonants, and consonant cluster. This paper reveals that there are differences in the phonemic features of Yoruba and English languages, and it is these differences that account for the pronunciation inefficiencies of Yoruba speakers of English. It is recommended that teachers of English should identify these problem areas and systematically teach their students. Broadcasters too, should be well trained to act as correct model of efficient pronunciation.