NASALISATION IN YORUBA: THE ONKO DIALECT PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT

This research work examines nasalization in Yoruba with particular reference to Onko dialect of the language. Nasalization in Onko is highly noticed because of nasal vocal quality to the extent that it has become an identification mark of any native speaker amidst speakers of other dialects of Yoruba. This is because nasality is realised on virtually all the segments in the dialect as may be noticed when one listens to a speaker during a speech event.  There has not been many rigorous research work of any kind on Onko generally nor has any indepth study done in this dialect using the non-linear approach. As such, autosegmental phonological framework was used in the analysis of nasalization in Onko. We used the Ibadan 400 List of Basic Words. For data analysis, we adopted non-linear method of phonological analysis which is in consonance with the theories used in the research. From the analysis, the following findings were made: apart from the fact that nasalized vowels were found word initially as against their restriction to medial and final positions in standard Yoruba, vowels /e/ and /o/ earlier found incompatible with nasalization in the New Benue-Congo languages were among the five nasalized vowels in Onko.