A sociolinguistic analysis of lexical variations and pronunciation variations among native KOLANGɛ speakers.

Abstract

This study is a sociolinguistic analysis of lexical and pronunciation variations among native speakers of Kolangɛ in the Seikwa Township located in the Bono-Ahafo region of Ghana. Kolangɛ exhibits important social variations which need to be described by linguists. The aim of the study was to examine the speech forms of the older generation and the younger generation and to establish any differences there may be. The study design was qualitative. The main instruments used were interview and conversation. The target population was native speakers of Kolangɛ and the sample size used for the study was sixty (60) native speakers. Speakers spoke spontaneously on such topics as lexical and pronunciation forms found in the home environment, the field of play and in the farm. The study revealed that lexical variations exist among speakers. The older generation speech forms were identified as original Kolangɛ forms whereas the variants that the youth speakers frequently use are identified as Asante Twi and English lexical items. Pronunciation variations were seen to occur in consonant deletion in the younger generation speaker forms. The younger generation’s deletion involves the approximants /r/ and /l/ in the same environments where the older generation speakers retain them. These variations, it was noted, do not impair intelligibility. The findings of the study established that social dialects are prevalent in the study area. This contributes to and strengthens the Labovian Resesacrh Paradigm. It adds to the discussions on social dialects in the literature. The study recommended that the youth speakers especially, should emulate the older generation forms of speech in order to maintain the original form of their endowed language.