Phonological Features of English as Spoken by Some Final Year Senior High School Students in Ghana
Date
2009-06
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
This study was to determine if any trends could be detected in the English spoken by
twenty Ga and twenty Asante-Twi final year Senior High School students. The researcher
was interested in two things: the first was to use the Accent Phonology theory by
Trubetzkoy (1931) to see where similarities. approximations and differences occur
between the English spoken by the students and RP: the second was to see if it was
possible to identify any respondent as Ga or Asante-Twi by hearing him or her speak
English.
The data consisted of word~ and sentences which the respondents had to read out. Their
readings were recorded. transcribed and their approximations to the RP consonants.
vowels. stress and intonational patterns were analyzed.
Results showed that out of the 20 RP vowels looked at. the respondents made use of
12: seven pure vowels and five diphthongs. The respondents' use of the voiced dental
fricative (IJ). the velar nasal (I}) the glottal fricative (lb/). the alveolar and post-alveolar
approximants (Ill and Iri. respectively). registered more variation from the RP than the
other consonants. The respondents had some knowledge of stress patterns in English. but
failed to make distinctions between weak and strong forms of grammatical words. They
also carried the syllable-time rhythm of their Lis into English.
Results also revealed that listening to the way a respondent realized the RP vowels
was not an adequate method to tell which LI he or she speaks. What is more. with the
consonants. the only ones that might be used to identify one group from the other are the
glottal fricative I hi, the post-alveolar Irk and the alveolar approximants If, and even
with the last two. the differences between the two groups are not significant.
Description
MPhil. English
Keywords
Phonological Features, English, Final Year Senior High School Students, Spoken, Ghana