SEMANTICS OF NON-LEXICAL VOCALICS IN NGWA

Ugorji Fyne, Nneoma; Utah Nduka, David

مجلة القانون والعلوم البينية
Volume 3, Numéro 2, Pages 36-45
2024-08-06

Semantics Of Non-lexical Vocalics In Ngwa

Authors : Ugorji Fyne Nneoma . Utah Nduka David .

Abstract

Non-lexical vocalic vowels, refer to vowel sounds that are components of communication by speech, which indicate cues as to how a preceding or a following message should be interpreted. Ngwa is a dialect of Igbo. The word ‘Ngwa’ also refers to the people and the geo – political area known as Ngwa land. The Ngwa people are found in Abia State in the Federal republic of Nigeria. This paper examined non-lexical vocalic vowels in Ngwa. Data for the study were obtained from competent native speakers using the elicitation method of oral interview, where the native speakers were requested to make utterances that have non-lexical vocalic vowels in Ngwa. The paper is poised to demonstrate the meaning of some non-lexical vocalic vowels in Ngwa, and to illustrate that non-lexical vocalic vowels can be used to substitute verbal expressions in Ngwa. The framework employed for the analysis of data in this paper is, Ethnomethodology, also known as Conversational analysis. The choice of this framework is because it is concerned with the identification and isolation of different types of utterances that occur in discourse interactions. The findings of this paper on non-lexical vocalic vowels are: that non-lexical vocalic vowels are semantically loaded utterances in Ngwa, that competence in the use of the Ngwa dialect will include a proper understanding and use of the non-lexical vocalic vowels in this dialect of Igbo and that non-lexical vocalic vowels can be used to reinforce and substitute verbal and nonverbal expressions in Ngwa. This work recommends further research in the study of non-lexical vocalic vowels in Ngwa in order to enhance the use and understanding of the various linguistic features in this dialect of the Igbo language.