Quantitative Analysis of Hausa Falling Tone in the Pronunciation of Disyllabic Hausa Words Among the Yorùbá-Hausa NCE 3 Students in Primary Education Studies

Hausa and Yorùbá languages shared two-level tones: high (ʹ) and low ( ̀ ), while a mid (-) and rising tones (˅) are peculiar to Yorùbá, with a falling tone (^) only related to Hausa. This study examines the production of Hausa falling tone among male and female NCE 3 Yorùbá-Hausa learners at the Primary Education Studies Department in Adeyemi Federal University of Education, Ondo. The study aims to investigate the accuracy and errors patterns in producing falling tones within the L2 context and their effects on language proficiency. Forty (40) participants, aged 18 years and above, participated in the study. In addition to the questionnaire, 50 carefully selected disyllabic Hausa words used for the construction of 50 simple declative Hausa sentences, with all containing either a high, low, or falling tone in their first syllables served as instruments. Every participant was asked to read aloud the sentences, while the researcher personally audio recorded the tasks, and then analysed them quantitatively, using SPSS Statistical tools. The selection criteria for the participants were based on purposive sampling, specifically targeting only individuals who were Yorùbá-Hausa learners and willing to participate in the study. An independent t-test was carried out to determine if there was a significant difference between the two groups in line with the predictions of Flege’s (1995) Speech Learning Model. The results comparing the performance of males and females reveal that even though the p-value for the t-test is p <.002, yet male participants commit more errors on tone assignment in the first syllable than their female counterparts, while the results of the shared and unshared tone assignment in the first syllable appeared statistically non-significant (p > .400). Generally, both male and female participants replace Hausa falling tone with either Yorùbá mid-tones or low tones, resulting in mispronunciation and a change in meanings due to the assignment of incorrect tones. These insights contribute to the understanding of L2 tone acquisition with implications for language teaching and learning in a multi-lingual environment.