Gender Variation in the Realisation of Syllabic Consonants among Nigerian Speakers of English

The study investigated the role of gender in the mispronunciations of English words containing syllabic consonants among speakers of English as second language. The aim of the study is to examine the role of gender in the mispronunciation of syllabic consonants among Hausa speakers of English as a second language, and how such mispronunciation affects the intelligibility of their speech. The study employs Labov’s Variationist Theory and Clements’s Sonority Sequencing Principle and the framework. The study is a descriptive design that focuses on observing and recording phonological behaviour and phenomena. Using Purposive Sampling Technique forty-eight subjects four colleges of education Northern Nigeria. Twenty-four near-native speakers of English Language were also sampled. The subjects were asked to read ten sentences and in each sentence a word with syllabic consonant was used. The subjects’ readings were recorded and played for the near-native speakers to listen. The pronunciations of the words with syllabic consonants were grouped into correct and incorrect and the comprehension of the sentences in which the words were used were grouped into intelligible and unintelligible. The study found that mispronunciations of words with syllabic consonants have a minimal impact on the intelligibility of the speech of the Hausa L2 speakers. Male Hausa L2 speakers mispronounce words with syllabic consonants than female Hausa L2 speakers. However, male speakers frequently use /ʊ/ sound to break syllabic consonants in words where bilabial stop—voiced and voiceless form a syllable while female speakers frequently use /ɪ/ sound to break syllabic consonants where bilabial stop—voiced and voiceless form a syllable. Hausa speakers of English as second language use /ə/ more than any other vowels to break syllabic consonants and the two groups used it equally often.