An analysis of minimal pairs in Igbo using a multimodal approach to speech perception

Abstract

Speech perception is the process by which the sounds of a language are heard, interpreted and understood. The traditional assumption that language is an auditory phenomenon was over ruled by the McGurk effect which proved by the use of experiment that visual signal also assists the auditory signal in the perception of speech sounds of a language. This work aims at examining minimal pairs in Igbo to determine if this theory of multimodal (audio-visual) perception of speech is applicable. The minimal pairs used in this work are extracted ten Igbo native speakers comprising of six females and four males, and from existing Igbo literature on minimal pairs while some are by introspection of the researchers as native speakers of the language under study. The variety of Igbo used in this work is the standard Igbo which is the variety of the variety that is officially recognized. For data analysis, the Multimodal Theory of speech perception was applied. Findings indicate that the native speakers of Igbo do not use visual information in order to properly perceive the sounds of their language, even those that are minimal pairs. The work concludes that the need for visual information for adequate identification, perception and comprehension of speech sounds cannot be said to be a general phenomenon since native speakers of a language could without the visual information, perceive and identify their speech sounds when audio recorded not minding the confusion that usually arises with minimal pairs. This work suggests that the Multimodal Theory of speech perception may only be applied when working with non-native or non-fluent speakers of a language.