By Musa, Joseph Ojonugwa
This work undertakes an investigation of the disposition to intonation, stress and rhythm of Igala
speakers of English. The subjects of the study were sixty students of varied educational levels; a
college of education and a university. The major research approach is the exercise on reading a
passage to draw out the different constituents of the suprasegmentals; stress, rhythm and
Intonation. From the data collected and analyzed on the performance of the students in the
reading exercise, the common performance features that were discovered among all the students
were; a tendency to stress more syllables in words than the native speakers do and to speak using
the tone system rather than intonation. This feature is traceable to the influence of syllable-timed
rhythm of the subjects’ mother tongue which characterizes the subjects’ accent of English. The
unchanging/unvarying tempo of stress, rhythm and intonation are indicative of syllable-timed
languages which is a great feature of the Igala speakers in their use of the suprasegmentals. Other
factors such as teacher qualification, inadequate equipment and opportunities for conferences and
seminars are secondary factors.