A CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF THE IBIBIO AND IGBO SOUND SYSTEMS

This research strives to contrast the consonant phonemes, vowel phonemes and tones ofIbibio and Igbo in order to describe their similarities and differences. The researcher adoptedthe descriptive method, and relevant data on the phonology of the two languages weregathered and analyzed within the framework of CA before making predictions andconclusions. Ibibio consists of ten vowels and fourteen consonant phonemes, while Igbo ismade up of eight vowels and twenty-eight consonants. The results of contrastive analysis ofthe two languages showed that there are similarities as well as differences in the soundsystems of the languages. There are some sounds in Ibibio which are not present in Igbo.Also many sounds are in Igbo which do not exist in Ibibio. Both languages share thephonemes /e, a, i, o, ɔ, u, p, b, t, d, k, kp, m, n, ɲ, j, ŋ, f, s, j, w/. All the phonemes in Ibibioare present in Igbo except /ɨ/, /ʉ/, and /ʌ/. Igbo has two vowel segments /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ and alsofourteen consonant phonemes /g, gb, kw, gw, ŋw, v, z, ʃ, h, ɣ, ʧ, ʤ, l, r/ which Ibibio lacks.Both languages have high, low and downstepped tones but Ibibio further has contour orgliding tones which are not tone types in Igbo. Also, the downstepped tone in Ibibio isconventionally marked with exclamation point, while in Igbo, it is conventionally markedwith a raised macron over the segments bearing it. With the assumptions of ContrastiveAnalysis Hypothesis (CAH), these differences may constitute learning problems to thelearners of either language, while similarities may facilitate learning. The paper predictsproblems and proffer solutions to helps teachers as well as learners tackle these difficulties.