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90                                         Nwabunwanne & Nnamdi-Eruchalu 

PHONOLOGICAL USE OF THE WEAK FORMS OF PREPOSITIONS BY THE 

EDUCATED IGBO SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH 

 

Nwabunwanne Igweadiani 

Department of English and Literary Studies, 

Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ebonyi, Nigeria 

Email: nwabu5555@gmail.com 

& 

Dr. Geraldine Ifesinachi Nnamdi-Eruchalu 

Department of English and Literature, 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria 

 

Abstract 

The spread and use of the English language has brought about varieties in the language which is 

reflective of its geographical spread and contact with the local languages. One area that is greatly 

affected by the contact between the English language and the local languages is pronunciation. This 

study examines the phonological use of the weak forms of prepositions among the educated Igbo 

speakers of English. The study also examines gender differences in the phonological use of the weak 

forms of prepositions. Sixty educated Igbo speakers of English as a second language comprising thirty 

males and thirty females who have no less than two years of post secondary education selected 

through a purposive random sampling technique participated in the study. The data were collected by 

getting the subjects to read a passage that contains prepositions that are supposed to be pronounced in 

their weak forms in connected speech into a recording device and was analysed perceptually. The 

study which relied on Labov’s theory of variation observed that educated Igbo speakers of English 

manifested variation in their production of weak forms when compared with RP. The study also 

observed that there is no gender differences in the manner in which educated male and female Igbo 

speakers produced the weak forms of the English prepositions 

Keywords: The Strong and Weak Forms, Variation Theory, The English Grammatical Words 

 

Introduction 

Many centuries ago, the English language was a local language spoken mainly by monolinguals 

within the shores of Britain. But today, the English language is a global language. The spread and use 

of the English language has brought about varieties in the language which is reflective of its 

geographical spread and contact with the local languages. One area that is greatly affected by the 

contact between the English language and the local languages is pronunciation. Okoro (159) attests 

that ‘geographical and regional varieties of English are usually most noticeable on the level of 

phonology’. The works of Labov (1963) and (1966) which were attempts to track the social variations 

of the features of a language have been inspiring researchers to map the differences between Standard 

British Usage (RP) and regional varieties, and to account for the linguistic and social variables that are 

responsible for the observed differences.  

 

A characteristic feature of natural connected speech in the English language is the weakening of 

grammatical words (also referred to as function words). The English grammatical words are realised 

in two ways in the spoken form. They could be realised in the strong form or in the weak form. 

Suffice to say that the English grammatical words undergo a set of modifications in natural connected 

speech. The modifications in natural connected speech of the English grammatical words are not 

arbitrarily done. It is context specific. There are certain contexts where only the strong form is 

acceptable and others where the weak form is the normal pronunciation. Why is it important to learn 

how weak forms are used? Roach provides answers to the question and it is worth quoting in extenso:  

There are two reasons; first, most native speakers of English find an ‘all strong-form’ 

pronunciation unnatural and foreign sounding, something that most learners would wish to 

avoid. Second, and more importantly, speakers who are not familiar with the use of weak 

forms are likely to have difficulty understanding speakers who do use the weak forms; since 

practically all native speakers of British English use them, learners of the language need to 

learn about these weak forms to help them understand what they hear. (Roach, 112) 

mailto:nwabu5555@gmail.com


AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 8 No. 1, 2021 
 

91                                         Nwabunwanne & Nnamdi-Eruchalu 

 

The Igbo speech community which is located in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria is made up of 

people that are highly educated, averagely educated and non-educated. The English language is their 

second language and their window to the world. The Igbo people, especially the educated ones, use 

the English language in the international community and in Nigeria for among other things, the 

purpose of academic exploits, trade, workshop, tourism, diplomacy, official governmental businesses 

etc. expectedly, they are supposed to use the weak forms of the grammatical words of the English 

language properly so as to enhance mutual intelligibility in their conversations with people 

internationally and within the country. Bearing in mind that speakers who are not familiar with the use 

of weak forms are likely to have difficulty understanding speakers who do use the weak forms, as 

well as the need to avoid sounding unnatural before the competent users of weak forms, this study sets 

out to investigate and characterize the phonological use of weak forms by educated Igbo speakers of 

English with focus on pronouns across social variables of age and gender. 

 

Research questions 

The following questions will guide the study: 

i. How do educated Igbo speakers of English pronounce the weak forms of prepositions? 

ii. What is the level of gender differences in the articulation of the weak forms among the 

educated Igbo speakers of English? 

 

The English Grammatical words 

Yadugiri (68) explains the English grammatical words as those words that do not have a dictionary 

meaning in the way that we normally expects nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to have. These 

grammatical words are auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, determiners and pronouns. 

The English grammatical words serve as grammatical cement holding content words together. They 

help to maintain relationships between higher syntactic units such as phrases and clauses. In other 

words, the English grammatical words are used to express structural relationship with other words in a 

sentence. In sum, one can say that the English grammatical words have little semantic content of its 

own and chiefly indicate a grammatical relationship among words in a sentence. 

 

The Strong and the Weak Forms 

As already hinted in the subsection above, the English grammatical words manifest in two ways in 

their spoken form – the strong and the weak forms. The strong form is stressed and it is the 

pronunciation form that is usually found in the dictionary entry of word. Suffice to say that the strong 

forms are produced with greater muscular energy and thus more prominent when compared with the 

weak forms. Laoubi (35) states that it is the first form to which foreign learners of English are 

introduced. 

 

On the other hand, the weak forms are unstressed, less prominent and phonemically different from the 

strong form in quality. The common way of weakening grammatical words is reduction in vowel 

quality. This is done usually by the replacement of the word’s vowel by a weaker one mainly the 

schwa /ə/ sound. Besides, weakening of grammatical words may be caused by change of consonants 

and appearance of syllabic consonants. For Roach (112), this variance in pronunciation is a significant 

characteristic of the way English pronunciation is modified. 

 

The Reasons for Weakening Grammatical Words 

There are a number of reasons for the weakening of English grammatical words. The reasons are 

usually linked to the supra-segmental aspects of English. One of the reasons for weakening 

grammatical words is to achieve regularity in the rhythm of English. The English language is a stress-

times language. This means that it is the number of stressed syllables in an English utterance that 

usually determines the time it would take to say the utterance. It also means that at the sentence level, 

there is an equal interval between stressed syllables. To maintain the rhythmic regularity of the 

English language, Laoubi (22) affirms that some syllables have to be compressed in a way that fits 

this ‘rhythm’. He further affirms that the English grammatical words of English are normally reduced 

to achieve the rhythmic regularity of the language. Suffice it to say that inappropriate pronunciation of 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 8 No. 1, 2021 
 

92                                         Nwabunwanne & Nnamdi-Eruchalu 

the weak forms distorts the rhythm of the English speech and therefore could lead to constant 

misunderstanding. Spoken English owes its rhythm to the appropriate use of the strong and the weak 

forms. 

 

Furthermore, weakening of the English grammatical words is a logical result of appropriate 

application of English sentence-stress which helps in conveying the appropriate meaning to the 

listener. Laoubi (22) states that regular weakening of the grammatical words helps the listener to 

perceive the prominent (stressed) words in the text and, thus, getting a correct interpretation of the 

intended meaning. If we stress all the words in a sentence, the prominent feature in the speech will be 

compromised and there would be no distinction between stressed and unstressed words which will 

affect the intended meaning of the utterance. 

 

In addition, the grammatical words are weakened because they convey little information when 

compared to content words. In connected speech uttered in English, content words are usually stressed 

because they carry the semantic load of the sentences. Take for instance the sentence: ‘I … student … 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University.’ In the sentence, even if the grammatical words are omitted, we can 

understand its meaning. Content words convey all the meaning and are, consequently, more 

important. Therefore, the weakening of the grammatical words is attributed to the little information 

they convey in sentences. 

 

Besides, weakening of the grammatical words helps to achieve ease in pronunciation. When we 

produce all the grammatical words in a sentence in strong form, it negatively affects our economy of 

speech production which affects ease of pronunciation. During sound production in connected speech, 

speakers modify their speech sounds in different contexts in order to facilitate ease of pronunciation. 

Weakening the grammatical words is one way oaf achieving ease in pronunciation in connected 

speech. 

 

The Strong and Weak Phonological forms of the English Grammatical words                

(Prepositions) 

(a)  Prepositions Strong Form  Weak Form 

To  /tu:/   /tə/ 

For  /fϽ:/   /fə/ before consonants 

/fər/ before vowels 

Of   /ɒv/   /əv/ 

At  /æt/   /ət/ 

From  /frɒm/   /frəm/ 

As  /æz/   /əz/ 

Than  /ðæn/   /ðən/ 

 

The Contexts for Using Strong and Weak Phonological forms 

The English grammatical words are used in the weak forms in all parts of the sentence except: 

i. when they occur at the end of a sentence. Example: 

I’m fond of chips [ aɪm fɒnd əv ʧɪps] 

Chips are what I’m fond of [ʧɪps ə wɒt aɪm fɒnd ɒv] 

ii. when they are used for contrastive effect. Example: 

Is this train from Awka? [ɪz ðɪz treɪn frəm Ͻ:kə] 

It is not the train from Awka, it is the train to Awka [ɪt ɪz nɒt ðə treɪn frɒm Ͻ:kə ɪt ɪz ðə 

treɪn tu: Ͻ:kə] 

The letter’s from him, not to him [ðə letəz frɒm ɪm nɒt tu: ɪm] 

iii. where prepositions are co-ordinated. Example 

The trains to and from Awka are always crowded. [ðə treɪnz tu: ən frɒm Ͻ:kə ə Ͻ:lweɪz 

kraudɪd] 

A work of and about literature [ə wɜ:k ɒv ən əbaut lɪtrəʧə] 

iv. when they are being “cited” or “quoted” in contrast to being “used” 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 8 No. 1, 2021 
 

93                                         Nwabunwanne & Nnamdi-Eruchalu 

Let us study how “the” and “a” are used in English. [let əs st˄dɪ hau ðɪ: ən eɪ ə ju:zd ɪn 

ɪŋglɪʃ] 

 

You shouldn’t put “and” at the end of a sentence. [ju ʃudnt put ænd ət ðɪ end əv ə sentens] 

Another point to remember is that when the weak-form words whose spelling begins with “h” (e.g. 

‘her’, ‘have’) occur at the beginning of a sentence, the pronunciation is with initial h, even though 

this is usually omitted in other contexts. (adapted from Roach 2000, Yadugiri 2008, Akinjobi, 2009) 

 

Theoretical Framework 

This study adopts the variation theory propounded by William Labov (1963, 1966). The theory holds 

that language is in constant process of change, and this change diffuses over geographical, social and 

linguistic spaces of users. The main goal of variation theory is to account for the variations that exist 

in language use across individuals and speech communities.  The theory is built on the idea that 

language is inherently variable at different structural levels of phonology, morphology and syntax and 

that it is a generally recognized fact that no two utterances of the same word by the same speaker are 

ever exactly alike. The same language varies from speaker to speaker or from community to 

community. 

 

The speaker variables commonly used for this purpose are socioeconomic class, age of the speaker, 

sex (gender) of the speaker, ethnic group of speaker and social network. This study is however 

restricted to the social variables of gender and age. The strength of this theory lies in its ability to help 

researchers gain insight from studying language from a socially realistic perspective that takes into 

account how diverse range of speakers use the language in everyday situations. Thus the theory does 

not rely on the intuition of a native speaker but rather relies on observing naturally produced speech. 

 

Methodology 

The study adopted descriptive research design. The data for this study were collected from 60 

educated Igbo speakers of English in Anambra state who had no less than two years of post secondary 

education. The study adopted a purposive random sampling technique in selecting the subjects to 

meet the social variables of age and gender. The subjects of the study were made up of 30 males and 

30 females. For the social variable of age, the subjects were made up of 30 young (17years – 40years) 

Igbo speakers of English and 30 old (41years and above) Igbo speakers of English. The instruments 

for data collection were questionnaire that sought information on gender and age bracket of the 

subjects and a reading passage. A recording device was used in recording the reading passage as the 

subjects were reading and analysed perceptually. An appropriate use of weak forms was allotted one 

mark and the total score for all the participants was converted to a percentage. 

 

Results and Discussion 

Research Question 1: How do educated Igbo speakers of English pronounce the weak forms of 

prepositions? 

 

Table 1: The realization of the weak forms of prepositions by educated Igbo speakers of 

English. 

Words RP Number of 

Educated Igbo 

Speakers variants 

(60) 

Percentage of 

Educated Igbo 

English Variants 

To [tə] 30 

28 

2 

[tʊ]  50% 

[to]  47% 

[tə]  3% 

For [fə], [fər] 56 

4 

[fɔ]  93% 

[fɔr]  7% 

Of [əv] 60 [ɔf]  100% 

At [ət] 58 [at]   97% 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 8 No. 1, 2021 
 

94                                         Nwabunwanne & Nnamdi-Eruchalu 

2 [ət]  3% 

From [frəm] 56 

4 

[frɔm]  93% 

[frəm]  7% 

As [əz] 56 

4 

[as]  93% 

[əz] 7% 

Than [ðən] 4 

56 

[ðən]  7% 

[dan]  93% 

 

In Standard English, to is realised as [tə] in English sentences where it is supposed to be realised 

in the weak form. Table 1 shows that only 3% of the subjects realised to as [tə]. 50% of the 

subjects realised to as [tʊ] while 47% of the subjects realised to as [to]. The preposition for which 

is expected to be realised as [fə] or [fər] (before vowels) in the contexts of weak forms was 

realised as [fɔ] by 93% of the subjects while only 7% of the subjects realised for as [fɔr] before 

vowels. As regards the preposition of, all the subjects realised the word as [ɔf]. The word at is 

supposed to be realised as [ət] in sentences in Standard English. Just 3% of the subjects realised 

the word as [ət] while 97% of the subjects realised the word at as [at]. The preposition from which 

is expected to be realised as [frəm] in the context of weak form in Standard English is realised by 

7% of the subjects as [frəm] while 93% of the subjects realised from as [frɔm]. Where the word as 

is expected to be realised as [əz], 93% of the subjects realised the word as [as].  Only 7% of the 

subjects realised the sound as [əz]. For the word than which is expected to be realised as [ðən] in 

Standard English, only 7% of the subjects realised it as [ðən] while 93% of the subjects realised it 

as [dan]. 

 

Obviously from the table, there is variation in the phonological use of weak forms by the educated 

Igbo speakers of English when compared with RP. The findings are in line with the findings of 

Akinjobi (2009) who studied the use of the weak forms of the English grammatical words by 

educated Yoruba English speakers in Nigeria and reported variation in the articulation of the weak 

forms when compared with RP. It seems therefore that the variation observed among Igbo 

speakers of English studied upholds the core tenet of Labov’s theory which believes that language 

is in constant process of change, and this change diffuses over geographical, social and linguistic 

spaces of users. 

 

Research Question 2: What is the level of gender differences in the articulation of the weak forms 

among the educated Igbo speakers of English. 

 

Table 2: Male and Female Realization of Weak Forms by Educated Igbo Users of English 

Word RP Number of 

Male Educated 

Igbo Speakers 

Variation (30) 

Male 

Educated 

Igbo 

English 

Variants  

Number of 

Female 

Educated Igbo 

Speakers 

Variation (30) 

Female 

Educated 

Igbo 

English 

Variants 

To [tə] 15 

 

14 

1 

[tʊ]  50% 

[to]  47% 

[tə]  3% 

15 

 

14 

1 

[tʊ]  50% 

[to]  47% 

[tə]  3% 

For [fə], 

[fər] 

28 

 

2 

[fɔ]  93% 

[fɔr]  7% 

28 

 

2 

[fɔ]  93% 

[fɔr]  7% 

Of [əv] 30 [ɔf] 100% 30 [ɔf] 100% 

At  [ət] 29 

 

1 

[at]  97% 

[ət]  3% 

29 

 

1 

[at]  97% 

[ət]  3% 



AJELLS: Awka Journal of English Language and Literary Studies, Vol. 8 No. 1, 2021 
 

95                                         Nwabunwanne & Nnamdi-Eruchalu 

From [frəm] 28 

 

2 

[frɔm] 

93% 

[frəm]  7% 

28 

 

2 

[frɔm] 93% 

[frəm]  7% 

As [əz] 28 

 

2 

[as]  93% 

[əz]  7% 

28 

 

2 

[as]  93% 

[əz]  7% 

Than [ðən] 2 

 

28 

[ðən]  7% 

[dan]  93% 

2 

 

28 

[ðən]  7% 

[dan]  93% 

 

From table 2 above, it is observed that when compared to RP, male and female participants 

manifested variations in the articulation of weak forms. It is equally observed that there are no gender 

differences in the realization of weak forms by the educated Igbo users of the English language. One 

would, therefore, conclude that both male and female educated Igbo speakers of English who were 

subjects of this study are at the same in the realization of the weak forms of the English language in 

sentences particularly with reference to prepositions which is the focus of this study. 

 

Summary of Findings 

The investigation of the use of the weak forms of prepositions shows that the educated Igbo speakers 

of English have problem with the pronunciation of weak forms of prepositions as they manifested 

variation in their use of the weak forms when compared with RP. The study equally observed that 

there is no gender difference in the realization of the weak forms of the prepositions. 

 

Conclusion 

The study sets out to investigate the phonological use of the weak forms of prepositions among the 

educated Igbo speakers of English. The study also investigated gender dimension to the use of the 

weak forms of prepositions. The study used Labov’s variation theory. From the findings of the study, 

it can be concluded that the educated Igbo speakers of English manifested variation in their use of the 

weak forms of prepositions when compared with RP. This study therefore upholds the core tenet of 

Labov’s theory which believes that language is in constant process of change, and this change 

diffuses over geographical, social and linguistic spaces of users. 

  

Works Cited 

Akinjobi, A. (2009). A Study of the Use of the Weak Forms of English Grammatical  

words by Educated Yoruba English Speakers. African Research Review Journal 3(3), 81-94 

Labov, W. (1963). The Social Motivation of a Sound Change. Word 19, 273-309 

Labov, W. (1966). The Social Stratification of English in the New York.  Washington 

 D.C: Centre for Applied Linguistics 

Laoubi, M. (2010). The Importance of Learning Strong and Weak forms in Listening  

Comprehension: The Case of Third year Students at the Department of English, Constantine 

University. Unpublished Master’s Dissertation, Constantine University Algeria 

Roach, P. (2002). English Phonetics and Phonology. 3rd ed. UK: Cambridge 

University Press 

Okoro, O. (2009). The Identification of Standard Nigeria English Usage. In A.B.K 

Dadzie & S. Awonusi (eds), Nigeria English: Influences and Characteristics. Lagos: Sam 

Iroanusi Publications 

Yadugiri, M. A. (2008). Making Sense of English: A textbook of Sounds, Words and  

 Grammar. New Delhi: Viva Books Private Ltd 

 


