Contrasting the Pronunciation of Centring Diphthongs in AVCamE and AVNigE: The Case of the NEAR, SQUARE and CURE Vowels

Purpose: This paper seeks to contrastively describe the pronunciation of three RP diphthongs; the NEAR, SQUARE and CURE vowels, in the speech of Cameroon English and Nigerian English speakers as depicted in audio-visual materials (movies, sermons and music). Methodology: Data for the study constitute a collection of excerpts from 150 audio-visual materials (movies, songs and sermons) all produced/ recorded in Nigeria or Cameroon from 2010 to date. Out of the 150 audio-visual materials, 75 were Cameroonian and 75 were Nigerian. The data were analysed mainly qualitatively using two theories, namely, Descriptive Linguistics and the Accommodation Theory. Findings: Despite the manifold similarities between Audio-visual CamE and NigE, there are remarked diphthongal differences between the two national varieties of English. Some of the differences include the pronunciation of the NEAR vowel as NigE /iε/ contrary to CamE /ε/; the pronunciation of the SQUARE vowel by NigE speakers as /ia/ against CamE /ε/ and the realisation of the CURE vowel as NigE /u/ as opposed to CamE /iɔ/, just to name a few. Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The paper shades light to the areas that could cause intelligibility problems between CamE and NigE speakers and concludes by recommending that the area of differences between NigE and CamE should be studied and treated as free variation while the abounding similarities are used to synchronize / merge the two varieties to derive the features of West African English for international use.