A Phonological Analysis of Gokana Sound System and its Implication for Second Language Acquisition.

Abstract:

Gokana is used to refer to the language spoken by the people in Gokana local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria. Studying the phonology of Gokana helps to provide the peculiar features of its sound system, together with its vowels and consonants. A proper comprehension of these features makes it easier to recognize how Gokana is different from other languages like English, Hausa, Efik to mention just a few. This study was set to ascertain the key phonological features of Gokana and how these features can influence the acquisition of second language. This study adopted a survey deisgn. Several trips to all the communities in Gokana were made to observe the sound patters of speakers in order to validate the true sound structure of Gokana. Aside our intuition as native speakers of Gokana, oral interview was employed where necessary to clarify controversial lingujistic issues. It was observed that some sounds which are present in the English language such as /Ɵ, ʃ, Ŋ, Ʌ, ∂,/ together with the diphthongs are not found in Gokana. Consequently, most Gokana speakers replace those sounds with the closely related ones from the sounds obtainable in Gokana especially in their L2. Again, it was observed that many Gokana native speakers find it difficult to articulate correctly any word that has the sound /r/ at initial or medial positions. Findings further revealed that the phonological features of Gokana has a serious implication on second language acquisition.