A sociolinguistic study of cluster simplification in Nigerian English

Abstract

This study is an exploration of the consonant cluster simplification in Nigerian English (NE), elucidating the complex interplay between acoustic cues and sociolinguistic factors. In contrast to previous research that overlooked the role of social variables in shaping NE cluster patterns, this study employs a corpus-based approach to analyse NE (varied) clusters. The study draws on a sample of speakers from the International Corpus of English (ICE). The corpus has 1010 382 spoken and written words for linguistic, social and acoustic analyses. The sampling for the study was based on social variables and ethnicity criteria. The analysis is based on a dataset of 855 tokens, distributed across various sociodemographic factors. The analysis was modelled in R to address the research questions. The findings are significant, revealing a strong positive correlation between the NE clusters and sociolinguistic variables. Age, ethnicity and speech style were found to be significant contributors (p < 0.05), while gender did not show any influence. The results underscore a consistent positive relationship between NE clusters and sociolinguistic and acoustic variables (duration and intensity) (p < 0.05). These features characterise NE speakers as northerners and southerners, rather than categorising them based on regional ethnicities of south, east and north.