Mispronunciation and Substitution of Mid-high Front and Back Hausa Vowels by Yorùbá Native Speakers

Sale Maikanti; Yap  Ngee Thai; Jurgen  Martin Burkhardt; Yong  Mei Fung; Salina  Binti Husain; Olúwadọrọ̀  Jacob Oludare

doi:10.31849/reila.v3i1.6107

Sale Maikanti Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Yap Ngee Thai Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Jurgen Martin Burkhardt Sunway University, Selangor, Malaysia
Yong Mei Fung Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Salina Binti Husain Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia
Olúwadọrọ̀ Jacob Oludare University of Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31849/reila.v3i1.6107

Keywords: Front, back, vowels, Hausa, Yorùbá

Abstract

The mid short vowels: /e/ and /o/ are among the vowels shared between Hausa and Yorùbá but differ in Hausa mid-high long, front and back vowels: /e:/ and /o:/. The phonemic differences in the two languages have caused learning difficulties among the Yorùbá native speakers to achieve their second language learning desire and competence. Yorùbá-Hausa learners mispronounce certain disyllabic Hausa words due to the substitution of vowels in the first and second syllables. Thus, both lexical and grammatical meanings of the Hausa words are affected. This study examined the production of the 12 Hausa vowels by level 1 and level 3 students who were learning Hausa as a second language to determine if there was a significant difference in how level 1 and level 3 students pronounced the short and long mid-high, front and back Hausa vowels. 88 Yorùbá native speakers were recruited using purposive sampling. Twenty-four different wordlists extracted from Bargery's (1934) Hausa-English dictionary and prepared in carrier phrases were audio-recorded. It was a mixed-method, and the results were discussed within the theoretical framework of Flege and Bohn's (2020) Revised Speech Learning Model and Corder's (1967) 'Error Analysis Model'. The results of the Mann-Whitney U test revealed that participants in level 1 generally performed lower than level 3 participants in the pronunciation of mid-Hausa vowels due to substitutions. Such errors have pedagogical implication in learning Hausa as a second language, and if not addressed accordingly, the standard of Hausa will continue to fall at an undesirable and alarming rate.

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Author Biographies

Sale Maikanti, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

Sale Maikanti is a principal lecturer in the Department of Hausa, Adeyemi College of Educaion, Ondo, Nigeria. He had his M.A. in 2013 from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto Nigeria. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Applied Comparative Linguistics in Universiti Putra Malaysia. He has a number of publications in reputable journals. His research interests include phonetics and phonology as well as second language learning.

Yap Ngee Thai, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

Yap Ngee Thai is an Associate Professor, Department of English Language, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication (FMLC), Universiti Putra Malaysia. She had her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Delaware, USA in 2006. Her research areas include theoretical linguistics, phonetics and phonology, psycholinguistics, and TESL, where she has published books and articles in reputable national and international journals in such areas.

Jurgen Martin Burkhardt, Sunway University, Selangor, Malaysia

Jürgen Martin Burkhardt received his MA in linguistics from Eberhard Karls University Tübingen and his PhD in Southeast Asian studies from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany. His research interests are Borneo studies, historical linguistics, and language documentation and description in general. He lectured at University Putra Malaysia in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia until recently, and is currently attached to Sunway College, Bandar Sunway, Malaysia. He has published articles and books.

Yong Mei Fung, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

Yong Mei Fung is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. She holds a PhD in Linguistics and Second Language Teaching from Massey University, New Zealand. Her research interests include collaborative writing, blended learning, learner autonomy, project-based learning, and self-assessment, and metacognitive strategies. She has published papers in international journals related to these areas.

Salina Binti Husain, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

Salina Binti Husain is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia. She got her PhD from the Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2011 with research interests in Spanish language and comparative studies. She has published books and articles in journals related to Spanish and Malay language.

Olúwadọrọ̀ Jacob Oludare, University of Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria

Oluwadọrọ Jacob Oludare is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and African Languages, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He obtained his PhD in Linguistics from University of Ibadan in 2010. He has published both in local and international journals in his area of specialization. He is an expert in Yorùbá with research interest in language and judiciary, as well as Pontius Pilate as a case study.

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