THE SYLLABLE STRUCTURE OF IGBOMINA DIALECT OF YORUBA

ABSTRACT

 The aim of the study is to examine the Igbomina syllable structure. This is with a view to discover the different syllable structures and syllable patterns that are attested in the dialect. The study relied on data collected from native speakers of the language with the use of Ibadan 400-wordlist of basic lexical items. The data were organized into the various syllable structures and patterns. The CV Phonology theory was adopted for the study.  In the analysis of the data, it was revealed that the Igbomina operates an open syllable structure, and its basic syllable structures are the V and CV. The V-syllable occurs at the word initial position while the CV syllable is observed to occur in isolation, at the word initial, medial and final position. The study concludes that Igbomina exhibits a simple syllable type. There are three syllable types in Igbomina which are; V, CV and  syllable in comparison with Standard Yoruba which have the same syllable types as Igbomina which are; V, CV and  syllable, one can deduce that they both share the same syllable structure. In addition to these types, there is a phonological syllable; CCV, which is a product of glide formation process.