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Volume 46, Issue 1
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Abstract

Abstract

This study investigates primary-stress placement in Nigerian L1 English (NL1E), an emerging accent of young Nigerians who acquire English as a first language, in order to account for the speakers’ stress patterns and the factors influencing them. In total, 194 lexical items were analysed, comprising 82 disyllabic words, 52 trisyllabic words and 60 morphologically complex words extracted from a passage read by 100 participants. The results reveal a blend of two stress systems — inner circle and distinctive NigE — with a slight preference for the inner-circle stress norms. Syllable weight and affix type were found to significantly influence stress placement. The findings portray NL1E stress as a hybrid system drifting towards the exonormative standard, possibly driven by the speakers’ continuous exposure to inner-circle accents through diction instruction and non-enculturation sources of learning.

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2025-03-14
2025-04-25

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Primary-stress placement in Nigerian L1 English
English World-Wide 46, 28 (2025); https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.23035.ola
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.23035.ola
/content/journals/10.1075/eww.23035.ola
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): affix type; distinctive stress; inner circle; Nigerian English; Nigerian L1 English; primary stress; syllable weight

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