Parameters of Intersegmental Co-Ordination in Igbo Speech Patterns: A Perceptual Analysis

This thesis examines the parameters of intersegmental co-ordination in Igbo speech patterns using a perceptual analysis approach. The researcher selected Akpo and Adazj-Nnukwu dialects in the Inland West lgbo dialect cluster and Ezza and Amaezu dialects of the Northern Igbo dialect cluster as the representative dialects for the research. This selection is primarily based on the fact that these dialects have had little or no linguistic investigation. From each of these four dialects, three respondents were chosen. Additional informal speech patterns were got from the speech activities involved during social functions. The researcher used a partially structured oral interview approach in the coIlection of data. This was facilitated by the use of a high quality, sensitive, tape recorder to ensure the perceptual clarity of the linguistic data. For data analysis, the sets of data were written down orthographically and transcribed phonetically. The P;nglish translations for all the data were hcludcd.
From the research work, three basic parameters of intersegmental co- ordination were established in the Igbo formal and informal speech patterns examined. These are the articulatory parameter, the co- articulatory parameter, and the connected speech features parameter. More specifically, the research revealed the lengthening of vowels and syllabic nasals in a number of environments in the Igbo speech patterns examined. Certain age long phonotactic constraints often reported for Igbo are not coniirmed in the examined speech patterns. Moreover, it was discovered that whereas phonetic labialization and palatalization of segments and homorganicity of nasals are as a result of anticipatory co-articulation, ilasalization occurs as a result of perseverative co-articulation. The research also shows that some features of intersegmental co-ordination like aspiration, lenition, labialization, and assimilation have no effect on the tones of Igbo speech. However, features like liaison, vowel elision and sound lengthening have varying effects on tones.