Nasalisation as a Phonological Process in Tiv

Tiv phonology has major and minor phonological processes and nasalisation belongs to the former. This study explores the nature of the Tiv nasalisation process. It describes Tiv nasals; discusses syllabic nasal consonants; examines the nature of nasalised vowels and differentiates between oral and nasal sounds. This study used Generative Phonology model which was popularised by Chomsky and Halle’s (1968). The Sound Pattern of English. This model formulates theories that help in the analysis of Tiv nasals and points out that vowels that precede nasal consonants are nasalised. The author used participant-observation instrument for data collection. Both primary and documentary sources are used in this study. It has been observed that Tiv phonology has pre-nasalised consonants. It has been discovered that Tiv language has five nasal consonants: /m/, /n/, /?/, /?/ and /?/. It has also been noted that /m/, /n/, /?/ and /?/ appear at the word-initial, medial and final positions of Tiv words. It has also been known that nasals have phonological, morphological and syntactic functions. It has been recommended that learners should pronounce n in nd, ng, nj, nk, and nz as /?d/, /?g/, /??/, /?k/ and /?z/ and should note that /m/ and /?/ are not the same: /m/ is a bilabial nasal whereas /?/ is labio-dental sound. Researchers should carry out acoustic description of nasals and describe articulatory processes of producing nasals

Nature of English and Tiv Metatheses

Metathesis, the transposition of letters and syllables, is a minor phonological process that is found in both English and Tiv languages. This phonological process has not received much attention it deserves because most scholars considered it as a figure of misspelling which is not worthy of researching. This paper investigates the nature of English and Tiv metatheses. The objectives of this paper are to classify English and Tiv metatheses, discuss the formation of metatheses in English and Tiv and state the functions of metatheses in English and Tiv languages. This paper used comparative linguistic theory which compares the nature of English and Tiv metatheses. The researcher used participant observation tool for elicitation of data for this study. Secondary materials such as journal articles, textbooks, dictionaries and encyclopaedias and Internet sources were used. This study links phonology, historical linguistics, onomastics and language pathology (speech disorder). The study has established that metathesis has phonological, orthographic, metrical and onomastic relevance. This paper provides an in-depth material for teaching and learning of English and Tiv languages. It has been recommended that lecturers in the National Institute for Nigerian Languages, Departments of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages should write books and critical works on Nigerian or African languages

Diachronic Study of Phonological Changes in Tiv Language

All levels of language analysis are prone to changes in their phonology, morphology, graphology, lexis, semantics and syntax over the years. Tiv language is not an exception to this claim. This study investigates various aspects of phonological or sound changes in Tiv language. This paper therefore classifies sound changes in Tiv; states causes of sound changes in Tiv and explores implications of sound changes. The research design used in this paper is purposive sampling of relevant data. The instrument used in this paper is the observation method in which the author selected words that showed epenthesis, deletion and substitution. It has been noted that the use of archaic spellings in the Modern Tiv literatures shows their ancientness. Phonological change is not a deviation but a sign of language growth and changes in spellings result in changes in sounds. The author recommends that scholars should write papers or critical works on lexical/morphological, syntactic, semantic, graphological changes in Tiv language. Students should write projects, dissertations and theses on language change and diachronic linguistics. This study introduces Tiv historical linguistics and diachronic phonology which serve as catalysts for the study of Tiv language. The understanding of Tiv sound change provides students with a much better understanding of Tiv phonological system in general, of how Tiv phonology works and how the phonemes fit togethe

Reduplications in the Tiv Grammar: Classifications and Functions

The repetition of phonemes, syllables and words is a natural process that has its role in the study of Tiv language. This study focuses on the morphological repetition that is popularly known as reduplication. Reduplication is a morphological process in which a base or stem is copied or repeated. The repeated stems are called the reduplicants and these reduplicants are either wholly copied or partially repeated. The ones that are fully reduplicated are referred to as full reduplications while the partially reproduced reduplicants are labelled partial reduplications. This paper therefore is premised on the following objectives: to classify Tiv reduplications; to differentiate between reduplications and triplications in the Tiv morphology; to compare reduplication and compounding; and to state the functions of reduplications in the Tiv morphology. It adopted Inkelas and Zoll’s (2005) The Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT) in this paper. Observation-participation methodology for the elicitation of data. It has been discovered that reduplication has both morphological and phonological features. Reduplications in Tiv have been trichotomised based on the structures, word-classes and functions. Linguists or scholars should read Tiv literatures to discover the beauty of reduplications in the Tiv language