Proceedings of the 8th International Academic Conference on Education
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Shibboleths of the Kusaal Speakers of English as A Second Language in Ghana
Hilda Abla Kodzoe-Bonto, Prof.Jemima Akosua Anderson, Elisabeth Orfson-Offei, PhD
ABSTRACT:
A socio-phonetic study of the production of the English post alveolar affricates /ʧ, ʤ/ by 30 student-teachers and workers from Gbewaa College of Education in the Upper-East Region, Ghana. The focus of the study was to affirm the surrogacy of the post alveolar affricates /ʧ, ʤ/ to velar plosives /k, g/ by some Kusaal speakers of English as a Second Language (ESL). Next was to uncover what is causing such substitutions in the L2, and finally to establish the phonological environments influencing such surrogates. The Variationist theory employed allows for a quantitative data analysis to affirm and define the pattern of surrogates made by the Kussal speakers of English. The findings discovered 22.50% of 1800 tokens for /ʧ/ surrogated as /k/. 38.39% of 1800 tokens for /ʤ/ surrogated as/g/. The regression model analysis was significant at 5% levels with p-value of 0.001 and the prediction was reliable at 75.5% or 69.1%. The substitutions of [ʧ~ k] and [ʤ~ g] affirm the shibboleths among the Kusaal speakers of English. An audit analysis of the consonant sound systems of both languages revealed the absence of the post alveolar affricates in Kusaal as one of the possible causes of the surrogacy. The phonological environment revealed the Received Pronunciation (RP) front vowels /i: and i/ triggered /ʧ/ at word initial and final positions to be realized as /k/. The /ʤ/ in word initial was triggered by RP /i:/, / i/, /e/, and /ɜ:/ to /g/ and word final by /e and ɜ:/ to /g/.
keywords: accent; acoustic segmentation; Ghanaian English; nativisation; phonological position