The /h/ Phenomenon: Over Generalised or Confused? The Nigerian Yoruba-English Speakers as a Case Stu...

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" The /h/ Phenomenon: Over Generalised or Confused? The Nigerian Yoruba-English Speakers as a Case Study "
Bamidele, Oluwabukola Omolara Katz, Jonah

Document Type	:	Latin Dissertation
Language of Document	:	English
Record Number	:	1053439
Doc. No	:	TL52556
Main Entry	:	Bamidele, Oluwabukola Omolara
Title & Author	:	The /h/ Phenomenon: Over Generalised or Confused? The Nigerian Yoruba-English Speakers as a Case Study\ Bamidele, Oluwabukola OmolaraKatz, Jonah
College	:	West Virginia University
Date	:	2019
Degree	:	M.A.
student score	:	2019
Note	:	63 p.
Abstract	:	In this thesis, I examined why the Yoruba speakers of the English language have difficulty in pronouncing word-initial glottal fricative in English. /h/ dropping and /h/ insertion is not expected as the Yoruba language supposedly have the glottal fricative in its sound inventory. I gave a brief introduction to Yoruba phonetics, a brief history about the contact between English and Yoruba language, and what other researchers have written about the /h/ dropping and insertion phenomenon. The research question was why the Yoruba-English speakers delete and insert the glottal fricative at the word-initial position. I started by investigating the nature of the Yoruba glottal sound. The result was that the Yoruba language has four variants of the glottal sound. These variants are not contrastive and as such, they are used interchangeably. I went further to investigate what the Yoruba speakers pronounce when they pronounce the English /h/. I then compared these pronunciations with the American native speaker’s pronunciations. The result from these analyses showed that the Yoruba-English speakers transfer the four variants of the Yoruba glottal sound into English; such that, the native speakers perceive /h/ insertion or /h/ dropping depending on the variant used.
Descriptor	:	English as a second language--ESL
	:	Linguistics
Added Entry	:	Katz, Jonah
Added Entry	:	West Virginia University