Aspects of Èfîk Phonology

The Èfik language is a Lower Cross language spoken in Cross River State of Nigeria. The study examines the segmental, suprasegmental and phonological processes of the Èfîk languge to establish the exact phonemic status of thelanguage with spectographic evidence. Goldsmith's Autosegmental phonology (1976) is adopted as the theoretical frame. A reduced SIL Comparative African Wordlist was used as our Wordlist. The list was administered on informants and their utterances were recorded with a midget Panasonic recording. The recorded utterances were digitally transferred into Praat software and converted to wavefiled. Complex and difficult sounds were selected for spectographic analysis to confirm their acoustic features. Survey and stratification methods were used in dividing Èfîk area into three cells based on similar linguistics features. Thirty native speakers were selected for this study using random sampling technique. Findings from this study show that Èfik has 23 phonetic consonants and 9 phonetic vowels. There are 21 phonemic segments in Èfîk: 15 consonants and 6 vowels. The language has two distinctive tones: high and Low. Other tones are modifications of the high low tone sequences. Èfik tones undergo delinking and linking processes. The language maintains simple syllable structures: (N) (C) V, with either vowel or syllabic Nasal constituting the peak. Assimilation is common in all phonological processes and homoganicity is observed. Intra-word deletion is attested in the language. Consonants/vowel ambivalence causes labialisation, palatalization and glide formation. It is suggested that further research be carried out on other aspects of Èfîk such as morphophonology and morphosyntax.

Table of content

Declaration

Certification

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of tables

List of figures

Key to symbols and notations

Chapter one: Background to the study

1.0 introduction

1.1 Background to the study

1.1.1 the history of the Èfîk Language and it's speakers

1.1.2 language classification

1.2 statement of the problem

1.3 Objectives of the study

1.4 Research questions

1.5 significance of the study

1.6 Scope of the study

1.7 delimitations of the study

1.8 Definitions of basic terms

Chapter two: Literature review and theoretical framework

2.0 introduction

2.1 review of related literature

2.1.1 relevant works in related language

2.1.2 phonetics and phonology of language

2.1.3 the segments

The consonant

Vowels

Suprasegments

Tone 

Syllable structure

2.1.5 phonological processes

Phonemic analysis

Theoretical framework

2.2.1 Autosegmental theory

Summary and gap

Chapter three: Research methodology

3.0 introduction

3.1 research design

Area of the study

Population of the study

Sampling procedures and sampled size

Research instruments

Method of data collection

Method of data analysis

Chapter four: data presentation, analyses and discussion of findings

4.0 introduction

4.1 data presentation of Èfîk consonants

4.1.1 Data analysis of Èfîk consonants

4.2 Data presentation of Èfik vowels

4.3 Data presentation of Èfik syllable

4.3.1 Data analysis of Èfîk syllable

4.3.2Tones in Èfîk

4.4 Phonological processes

4.5 Discussion of findings

Chapter five: summary, conclusion and recommendations

5.0 Introduction

5.1 summary

5.2 conclusion

5.3 Recommendations

References

Appendices