Contrastive Study Of Consonant Sounds Of Ekid And Bekwarra Languages

ABSTRACT

This research is an attempt to show a contrast of the consonant sounds of Ekid and Bekwarra. The variation in the two languages motivated this study. The data from this research were obtained using elicitation method, while, stratified sampling technique was used in the selection of participants for the data collection. Participant across the age range of youths (both male and female) and elders (both males and female) were chosen to participate in the data collection with data presented along the lines of number of words. Analysis shows that Bekwarra do not permit consonant clusters but Ekid permits. The following phonemic consonants are present in Bekwarra but absent in Ekid they are; /p,g,gb,ɪ, ʃ tʃ, j (y), h/. The following strings are permissible in Ekid but not permissible in Bekwarra. They make use of vowel and syllabic nasal as syllabic peaks in the language, as these two classes of segments are tone bearing units in a language. In conclusion, Ekid and Bekwarra structures, like any other African language, are strictly guided by the phonetactic rules of the language

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1       Introduction

A consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract (Naumann, 2008). Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and [m] and [n], which have air flowing through the nose (nasals). The consonants are those sounds which are always produced with some form of obstructions (either partial obstruction or total obstruction). Consonants show greater constriction of the vocal tract and are less sonorous, less prominent than their vowel counterpart. Udofot (1996) points out that. can produce certain sequence like /mm, mmn, shr, zsr/, all made up of consonants. Such sequences cannot rightly be claimed to belong to any particular language, they are simply identifiable form of human noise which may express some kinds of emotion in certain situations. There are varied kinds of consonants. Practically, all natural languages have plosive consonants, fricative consonants and nasal consonants in varying numbers and distributional patterns.

This study strives to do a contrastive study of consonant sounds in Ekid and Bekwarra languages. The study will eventually lead to a linguistic description of consonants in Ekid and Bekwarra languages with their analysis showing their place of articulation, nature of voicing, distribution and description.

1.2       Background of Language and People of Esit Ekid

As far as Esit Eket people are concerned, Ekid means the settlement or land that the people were looking for and eventually found, Adikpan (2000) Ekid iss the name of a language and it is spoken as the main and dominant local language in Esit Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Connel (1994). Ekid language belongs to the lower cross sub family of the Delta group of the Cross River sub-branch of the New Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo sub-family of the Niger Kordofanian language of family, Williamson (1989).

According to Udo (1983), the Esit Eket people were the first batch of central Ibibio who pressed by new arrivals of central Ibibio, migrated southwards to their present settlement. Some of them migrated to the Ibeno area, but finding land in Ibeno unsuited for agriculture are burial and the sea boisterous, swing back to the mountain and settled there.

Esit Eket is the colonial form of “Ekid”, which is the people’s word for their language, Adiakpan (2000). The Esit Eket people must have entered Nigerian before 1000 B.C and must have reached the Atlantic ocean “wall”, beyond which they could not go before 1000 AD their major settlement was first at the place called Inua Akpa and later on, they moved to a place called Nta Ikang Adiakpan (2000).

More so, according to Wikipedia (2016), there are predominantly farmers, fishermen and traders in Esit Eket and they are actively involved in the oil industry downstream operation. According to the National Census (2006), there are about 33, 942 males and 29, 759 females in Esit Eket Local Government Area. The villages are spread across the developed zones; A, B and C zone. A is made up of ward 12 and 13, zone B is made up of ward 4, 5, and 6 while zone C is made up of ward 7, 8 and 9. The people of Esit Eket are dynamic and vary resourceful. The orthodox Christian churches that operate in the area include; Qua Iboe, Roman Catholic, The Apostolic and Lutheran churches.

The socio-cultural and traditional life of the people of Esit Eket Local Government Area is well displaced in dances, songs, plays, mythologies, oracles, cults,

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