| Abstract: |
Communication processes in both Tiv and English cannot be fully understood when speakers and learners do not properly understand how the sounds of these languages behave and organise themselves into meaningful units. This study, thus, examines these with a view to bettering many users’ understanding
sounds of both languages. With the primary intuitive linguistic knowledge, observation and secondary data, the study demonstrates how the sounds (vowels and consonants) of these languages behave and organise themselves into meaningful units through assimilation, elision, contraction, insertion, glide formation and
syllable structure, among other phonological processes. The demonstration is made with illustrative examples capable of helping users to understand how Tiv and English sounds are structured into meaningful units and behave in various linguistic contexts. Leaning on Chomsky’s and Halle’s generative phonological
theory, the study concludes that poor understanding and lack of mastery of phonological processes adversely affect speakers’ competence in generating fully meaningful utterances and in the generative
grammar of these languages. The study enjoins the Tiv speakers of English to consistently strive towards mastering the two phonologies in order for communication processes to be fully understood. |
EBONYI JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE
