Standard Nigerian English phonemes: The crisis of modelling and harmonization

Abstract

For more than half a century now, discussions on the distinctiveness of the English language in Nigeria have dominated many scholarly articles. Some of these articles have adequately proved that the grammatical and lexical systems have attained an appreciable standard, but it is doubtful if the same could be said of its phonology. For example, it has been suggested that it is arguable that Nigerian English (NE) variety has a standard phonology. This present paper demonstrates that several published sources on phonemicization in NE are generally discordant, and argues that the major problems confronting phoneme delineation in NE include the lack of coordination in research efforts, indefinite criteria for varieties differentiation and a general crisis of modelling. Pointing out that a proper coordination of research efforts is inevitable, the paper collates and surveys the various models on Standard NE phonemes provided by linguists, compares these with the model of standardized RP, and finally suggests that there are signs of an emerging national standard. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.