USE OF STRESS AND INTONATION AMONG IGBO SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH- GENDER PERSPECTIVE
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Background of the Study
The sound system of language is made up of the segmental and suprasegmental features. The segmental features consist of the vowels and consonants. They are so described because they are features of speech which can be broken down into individual units like the vowels and consonants. On the other hand, the suprasegmental features extend beyond the vowels and consonants. They function within larger units like words, phrases and sentences. They are those elements of speech that are not individual phonetic segments (vowels and consonants) but are properties of syllables and larger units of speech. The three main suprasegmental features are stress, intonation and tone (Agbedo 141). In a tone language, like Igbo, tone is often described as pitch that differentiates the meanings of words (Okorji 26). Many researches carried out by linguists ̶ Pike (20 - 25); Cruttenden (58- 61); Clark and Yallop (30 -35); and Okorji (13-18) ̶ on tone languages indicate that majority of the world languages are tagged tone languages and in these languages, tone plays major roles at every level of linguistic analysis. Most Nigerian indigenous languages (e.g Igbo, Yoruba, etc.) are tone languages. In a tone language, the pitch belongs to the word, but in an intonation language, the pitch belongs to the phrase and sentence. As a result of this, the Igbo speakers of the English language attribute the variation to the words and, in so doing end up confusing the native or near-native speaker of English. This is blamed on mother-tongue interference. According to Umera-Okeke, Intonation and other prosodic features modify the stream of speech, thereby helping us to communicate the grammatical and other distinctions in the English we 2 speak just as punctuations are the visual devices that perform similar role for the English we write. (172) The rise and fall in the pitch of the voice are important features in spoken English. Manisha, et al (cited in Ikemelu) explained the importance of these features as follows: Suprasegmental or prosodic features are often used in the context of speech to make it more meaningful and effective. Without suprasegmental features superimposed on the segmental features, a continuous speech can also convey meaning but often loses the effectiveness of the message being conveyed. (23) The importance of these features in spoken English makes it necessary to learn the intonation and stress patterns and their proper use to ensure the intelligibility of spoken English. The constraints in English stress and intonation are the conflicts emanating from an attempt to do away with already formed habit. In the bid to master the features of the target language, an Igbo speaker of English faces some problems in trying to identify with two different linguistic environments. According to Ekejiuba (cited in Chukwu), Language is a habit. An attempt to do away with an already formed habit is often beset with difficulties. The habit one formed in acquiring one’s first language forms a strong background against which one learns another language. Any previously learned habit (that is, the native language) is said to interfere with the acquisition of new ones. (38) This is a good explanation to the constraints observed by the Igbo speakers of English in the use of stress and intonation. Learners’ gradual progress in their performance in the target language makes them overcome some of the problems militating against their learning the second language but some become fossilised. At the level of intonation, this difficulty is evident because the Igbo language is a tonal language whereas English is an intonational language. Again, notwithstanding the syllable-timed system of the Igbo language, it has an intonation pattern called the downdrift. This is the declination of the pitch of the voice from left to right when a high tone and a low tone appear successively in a sentence. This observation was made by Ume et al (cited in Chukwu 43) when they postulated that, “… although Igbo is a tone language, it has 3 traces of intonation” (43). Ugoji (26) opines that “…all writers on Igbo tones have observed downdrift which Schachter observes as an intonation feature similar to English falling tune.” This creates problem of improper use of the English tune patterns in the speeches of male and female Igbo speakers of the English language. This is why there is the tendency for Igbo speakers of the English language to superimpose the falling tune on English sentences requiring rising and combined tunes. In doing this, the melodies and meanings of certain utterances are lost in communication with native or near-native speakers of English. This does not augur well for national and international intelligibility of the English language. This lends credence to the view of Lado when he opines that “…those elements that are similar to the learner’s native languages will be simple for him” (2).
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