A Comparative Phonological Study of Ukwuani/Igbo and English Languages: Implications for Second Language Acquisition and Phonological Theory

Abstract

The phonological challenges faced by Ukwuani/Igbo speakers learning English as a second language remain poorly understood despite Nigeria's multilingual educational context. Previous comparative phonological studies have largely overlooked understudied Niger-Congo dialects like Ukwuani, creating gaps in understanding tonal-to-stress language transfer patterns and limiting effective English as a Second Language pedagogy design. This study aims to provide a comprehensive comparative analysis of Ukwuani/Igbo and English phonological systems, identify specific areas of phonological transfer difficulties, to document unique Ukwuani phonological features, and to propose pedagogical implications for ESL instruction. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining qualitative comparative phonological analysis with quantitative acoustic measurements. Data were collected from 24 native speakers (12 Ukwuani/Igbo, 12 English) through structured investigation of 150 phonologically representative words and phrases. Acoustic analysis was conducted using Praat software, while phonological analysis employed Optimality Theory framework to examine constraint interactions and phonological processes. Significant phonological differences were identified: Ukwuani/Igbo exhibits six phonemic nasal vowels (versus English's allophonic nasalization), employs a three-tone lexical system (High 38%, Mid 35%, Low 27%) contrasting with English stress-timed prosody, and demonstrates implosive consonants (/ɓ/, /ɗ/) absent in English. Syllable structure analysis revealed Ukwuani/Igbo's preference for simple Consonant-Vowel (89% of syllables) versus English's complex consonant clustering (39% complex syllables). Transfer analysis showed 76% of Ukwuani speakers imposed tonal patterns on English words. These findings contribute to sound systems through comprehensive documentation of understudied Ukwuani features and provide empirical evidence for designing targeted pronunciation instruction in Nigerian ESL contexts. The study advances phonological theory by demonstrating constraint ranking patterns in Ukwuani that support universal grammar hypotheses while showing language-specific adaptations.