Abstract
This study investigated phonological deviations among radio newscasters, using Hit Fm and Sparkling Fm as a case study. The objectives of the study were to investigate the phonological deviation found in the speech form of radio newscasters, examine the word stress placement that cause their speech to deviate from the norms, and to analyzethe intonation patternin the utterances of the radio newscasters.The study utilized the Contrastive Analysis theory by Lado (1957). Six newscasters were selected for this research and the data were gathered through the collection of live recordings for each newscaster, a total of twenty (20) to identify the deviations in their utterances. The data were analyzed using descriptive and acoustic approach. Findings from this study show that the deviation in the English speech of Nigerian radio newscasters cuts across segmental and suprasegmental levels. At the segmental level, the researcher realized that the speech broadcast of L2 speakers is characterized by –h dropping, substitution, monophthongization and diphthongization. In terms of prosody, the Nigerian Intonational Pattern (NIP) differs from that of Received Pronunciation Intonational Patterns (RPIP). It was further observed that the word stress placement of the radio newscasters differs from that of the RP. The newscasters demonstrate a preference for ultimate syllable stress in disyllabic words, penultimate in trisyllabic syllable stress, antepenultimately and penultimately stressed polysyllabic words. The study suggests that further studies be carried out in this field with more emphasis on suprasegmental level.
Keywords: Phonology, deviation, radio newscasts and mother tongue
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2025.v01i02.013
author/Queen Lucky Ukpe
journal/Sokoto JOLICS 1(2) | November 2025 |
