A contrastive study of the phonology of Igbo and Yoruba

Abstract

This paper, a contrastive study of the phonology of Igbo and Yoruba, is aimed at finding out the phonological problems the Igbo learners of Yoruba and the Yoruba learners of Igbo will encounter in their learning Yoruba and Igbo, respectively, as their L2. Using existing works on the phonology of Igbo and Yoruba, the researchers compared the consonants, vowels and tonal systems of both languages. Igbo is made up of twentyeight consonants and eight oral vowels, while Yoruba has eighteen consonants, and twelve vowels comprising seven oral vowels and five nasal vowels. The contrastive analysis carried out evinced that there are some sounds in Igbo which are not present in Yoruba; also some sounds in Yoruba are not in Igbo. For example, /p kw gw v z η ηw η ɣ tƒ / are Igbo phonemes which Yoruba lacks. Another striking difference between the two languages is the presence of nasal vowels in Yoruba, / ĩ ε̃ ã ɔ̃ ũ/, which do not exist in Igbo. Also, /I/ and /℧/ are in Igbo and not in Yoruba, while /ε/ is present in Yoruba but absent in Igbo. Although both languages have high and low tones, Yoruba also has a mid tone while Igbo also has a downstep tone. Following the tenets of contrastive analysis (CA), these differences are presumed to constitute learning difficulties. To make the learning of these languages easy for our stated learners, all the predicted areas of difficulties must be properly handled by the language teachers to avert the manifestation of the predicted errors in the speech of the learners. This could be achieved by making the Igbo  learners of Yoruba master the production of those Yoruba sounds they are not familiar with; and the Yoruba learners of Igbo to internalise how to produce those Igbo sounds that they are not familiar with. On the issue of tone, the students should be made to be conscious of the tonotactics of mid tone and downstep tone and apply them appropriately in their speech.