International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research

Vol.3, No.4, pp.1-8, August 2015

___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)

CONTRASTIVE STUDY OF ENGLISH AND YORUBA MORPHOLOGICAL

SYSTEMS- IMPLICATIONS FOR NIGERIAN TEACHERS AND LEARNERS OF
ENGLISH.
Ogundepo, Abimbola Olusola
Emmanuel Alayande College of education, Oyo
Lanlate Campus, Lanlate

ABSTRACT: This study examines the differences and similarities in the morphological
systems of English and Yoruba languages. It establishes the preeminence of English language
in Nigeria’s linguistic firmament and posits that an average Nigerian needs to learn and
acquire proficiency in the use of English if he is to adequately fulfill his roles in the society. It
agrees with earlier scholars who have asserted that most errors observed in English
language use of most bilinguals are traceable to their first language and thus recommends
that English language teachers should undertake contrastive study of the mother tongue of
learners and the target language as this will be of a tremendous help in the effective
discharge of their duties. It will help them, amongst others, to understand how differences in
the morphological systems predispose learners of English to committing errors in English
language.
KEYWORDS: Contrastive study, Morphological systems, Implications.

INTRODUCTION
Language is one of the greatest gift of God to mankind. It is a means by which man expresses
his ideas and gives meaning to his existence. Little wonders, Bloomfield and New mark
(1963) defines language as fundamentally the means by which men communicate with each
other and with themselves. Oyedokun-Alli (2014) describes language as an effective tool in
socialization and social intercourse. He argues that the manifest use of language distinguishes
man from other animals. In a similar vein, Babatunde (2002) explicates that language is the
expression of culture, the depository of culture and crucial mode of culture transmission.
Like Oyedokun-Alli, Olutayo (2004) describes language as one of the basic characteristics of
human beings. It is a useful feature that differentiates him from other creatures. Ojetunde
(2013) observe that language performs transactional, interactional and educational functions.
English Language in Nigeria.
English language is arguably one of the most valuable assets left behind by Nigeria’s colonial
master. According to Kolawole (1998) as a result of the multi-lingual and multi-ethnic nature
of Nigeria and for administrative purpose, the English language has been adopted as the
second language. Ajulo (1989) asserts that the role of English language in a multi-lingual and
multi-ethnic country such as Nigeria has been one of integration. Oyedokun- Alli (2014)
corroborates this when he posits that English is the most enduring of the legacies of
colonialism. And that the utilitarian use of the language for inter-ethnic communication, for
politics and administration and as a medium of institution in education and mass-
communication. cannot be over emphasized. For decades English has remained the language

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Vol.3, No.4, pp.1-8, August 2015
___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)

of government, law, administration politics, mass media, commerce and all sorts of social
engagement for people from different language groups in Nigeria.
It is the language of education and medium of instruction in school. All these are
corroborated by Adeyanju (2002) who states that English language in Nigeria has for long
championed the course of human co-operation by performing effectively all the above
mentioned roles. All these show that the English language has such preeminence in Nigeria
than any other Nigeria language. In fact it is the official language of Nigeria.
In view of the importance attached to English, an average Nigerian is expected to have more
than just a working knowledge of the language. To fulfill one’s roles effectively in the society
one needs a good command of the language. It has become so important that we cannot avoid
speaking and writing it in a way that is universally accepted. This presupposes that an
appreciable degree of competence is expected from the learners of English.
It is quite disheartening however that most Nigeria learners of English as a second language
find it difficult to attain the required proficiency in the language. Literature abound on the
falling (?) standard of English in Nigeria ( Adelabu 2006,Ayodele 1987,Adelabu & Fadimu
2003, Adesanoye 1973, Adepoju 1999Ajulo)
This poor performance of student in all area of English language competences has been a
topic of debates and complaints among all stake-holder and should be of a great concern to
English language teachers and researchers. This is because the poor performance in English
leads to poor performance in other school subjects.(Fadimu & Ogundepo 2014, Adelabu
1990)
Oyedotun-Alli (2014) noted that the perennially poor performance of student taking English
language examinations in Nigeria public school has contained to impact negatively on
Nigeria’s education objectives. If English is as important as described above and the standard
is either falling or fallen, then there are several things to be done to remedy this situation in
order to avoid the concomitant effects of such lack of communicative competence on the
educational system and life generally in Nigeria. One major thing to be done is to find out
factor precipitating the poor standard of English usage amongst students.
Several researchers have identified several probable causes of this phenomenon. (Ayodele 87,
Adelabu. Fadimu 2003, Shaibu 2007, Ihejirika 2007, Foyewa & Ogundepo 2014
Olatayo,Alabi and Ogundepo2008) some of the factors identified by these scholars include
lack of appropriate text books, students’ negative attitudes, complexity of the language, roles
of teachers, and national language policy Others include overcrowding in schools, inadequate
number of qualified teachers, lack of dedication and commitment on the part of teachers and
age of students in schools nowadays.

Linguistic Interference
One major factor which indeed needs more examination is the effects of the learners’ mother
tongue on their target language (English). This is in agreement with Oyedokun- Alli’s (2014)
submission that a bilingual speaker is probably never equally competent in both languages. In
fact, scholars like Lado (1957), Langaker (1972), Bollinger (1972), James (1964), Afolayan
(1968), Banjo (1969) and others have through their works highlighted the importance of this

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 International Journal of English Language and Linguistics Research
Vol.3, No.4, pp.1-8, August 2015
___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)

particular factor, yet more works need to be done as recent evidence points at it as a major
factor responsible for the infelicities experienced in student language use.
In the view of Adelabu (2014), mother tongue interference continues to be regarded as the
most obvious cause of difficulty which cannot be ignored. Little wonders William (Cited in
Adelabu & Fadimu, 2004) declares that
If therefore we look at the speech and writing of the foreign learner, there is little reason to
doubt that we will find many mistakes which can be traced to the mother tongue.
The interference refers to the instances of deviation from the norms of either language in a
bilingual situation which occurs in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with
more than one language (Ojetunde 2013, Akindele and Adegbite 2005). It is a linguistic
situation whereby an overlap in two different languages causes a bilingual to transfer the
linguistic systems of a language into the other in the process of producing that other language
which happens to be the second or target language.
Lado (1957) underscores the effects of L1 on L2 when he remarked that:
Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings, and the distribution of forms and
meaning of their language and culture to the foreign language and culture both productively
and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as
practiced by the natives.
This perhaps, is why Fries (1945) put up the review that for foreign language teaching, “the
most effective materials are those based upon a scientific description of the language to be
learned, carefully compared with a parallel description of the native language of the learner”.
It is in view of the above that a synchronic study of English and Yoruba morphological
systems is undertaken here. It is believed that a comparative study of this type will reveal the
differences which are assumed to be responsible for linguistic interference and are thus
sources of difficulties for a Yoruba learner of English.

Statement of the Problems

This study aims at finding solutions to the following research problems:
(i) are there similarities and differences between English and Yoruba morphological
systems
(ii) at what language level are these differences and similarities noticeable?
(iii) How do these differences pose learning problems?
(iv) How can the learning problems be solved?
(v) How do the similarities facilitate learning of either language?
(vi) What are the benefits of a comparative study to a language teacher?

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___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)

To find answers to these questions, this research examined the alphabets of the two
languages, attributes of nouns, verbs and adjectives of the languages, the sound system of the
languages, affixation, tense structures, proverbs and loan words.
The research brought into focus the differences in these identified language areas with a view
to determining how the differences account for observed deviation from the norms.

The Alphabets
The English alphabet consists of 26 letters made up of five vowels and twenty-one
consonants:

a b c d e f g h i j k
l m n o p q r s t u v w x
y z
These differ significantly from the Yoruba alphabet that has 25 letters made up of seven
vowels and 18 consonants:

a b d e e f g gb h i j k
l m n o o p r s s t u w
y
besides the difference in the number of letters and vowels/consonant distribution, there exists
in each language some letters that are not found in the other.
In Yoruba alphabet there are letters ‘s’ ‘e’ ‘o’ ‘gb’ which have no equivalent in English
language. As sounds though, equivalents can be found for ‘s’ ‘e’ but the ‘gb’ and ‘o’ have no
known English equivalents either as letters or as sounds.
There is also the absence of ‘c’ ‘q’ ‘v’ ‘x’ ‘z’ in the Yoruba alphabet.

Sound System
At the segmental levels, the English sound system consists of 44 sound segments made up of
20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds thus:

Consonant sounds: /t/ /b//d//p/ /f//v/ /m/ /n/ /s//ʃ/ /l/ /r/ /j/ / tʃ/ /k// /dʒ/ /w/ /h/ /g//ʒ/ /ŋ/ /θ/
Vowel sounds:

Pure vowels /ɪ/ /e/ /æ / /ɒ/ /ʌ/ /ʊ//iː/ /uː/ /ɑː/ /ɔː/ /ɜː/ /ə/

Diphthongs /eɪ/ /aɪ / /ɔɪ/ /əʊ/ /aʊ/ /ɪə/ /eə/ /ʊə/

The Yoruba sound systems however has 30 sound segments made up of 18 consonant sound
and 12 vowel sounds.The vowel sounds in Yoruba are made up of 7 oral sounds and 5 nasal
vowels this
Consonant sounds /t/ /b/ /d/ /f/ /m/ /n/ /s/ /l/ /r/ /j/ // / ʃ / /k/ /kp/ /gb/ /w/ /h/ /g/

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___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)

Vovel sound /a/ /e/ e // /i/ /o/ /o/ /u/

The sound segment unique to English are /v/ / tʃ/ /dʒ/ /ʒ/ /ŋ/ /θ/ /ð//æ / /ʌ/ /ʊ/ and /ə/
while/ /kp/ /gb/ /o/ and all the nasal vowels are unique to Yoruba language. Little wonders
why Yoruba learners of English have difficulties in distinguish the long and short vowels / æ
/ and /a:/ / ʊ / and /u:/ /I/ and /i:/ in their vowel length and quality.
They also tend to substitute /f/ for /v/, /s/ for /z/, /t/ for //θ/ and /d/ for /ð/.
Because of the absence of diphthongs in Yoruba sound system, Yoruba learners of English
experience difficulties is articulating the closing and the centering diphthongs. They also
experience difficulties in distinguishing voiced and voiceless final consonants in words.
Perhaps because most Yoruba words hardly end in consonants.
English language has consonants clusters but this is alien to Yoruba language. Hence Yoruba
learners of English tend to insert an intervening vowel in consonant clusters.
At the supra-segmental level significant differences occur in the two languages. Yoruba is a
tonal language while English in an intonational language. Yoruba relies on tone to bring
about change in meaning of words as in ra (disappear) ra (rub) and ra (buy) or oko (hoe) oko
(vehincle) and oko (husband). English on the other hand relies on the stress which is achieved
by length, higher pitch or greater amplitude. These stress and intonation are capable of bring
about changes in meaning of utterances.

Noun and Pronouns in English and Yoruba

There are certain phonological and morphological processes that take place in Yoruba noun
formation without a corresponding equivalent in English Language. The Yoruba Language
has two forms of nouns. These are the full form and the reduced form. In the reduced form of
nouns in Yoruba language, consonant elision and vowel assimilation are often experienced.
Here the middle syllable drops its consonant and its vowel is assimilated by the vowel of the
preceding syllable.
Egungun (Masquerade) becomes Eegun Otito (Truth) becomes Ooto Agogo (Bell) becomes
Aago.
Yoruba plural nouns are hardly ever realized the way English plural nouns are. Plurals are
realized through the addition of plural marker ‘awon’ to proceed the Yoruba noun to be
pluralized. Also, Yoruba Nouns have no gender markers for proper nouns and personal
pronouns.
Two or more nouns in Yoruba language can combine to form two different relationships in
Yoruba. This is not possible in English. For example, possession in Yoruba can be expressed
through a combination of two nouns ‘Ibon ode’ (Hunter’s gun) ‘iwe ade’ (Ade’s book) ‘Ile
Ayo’ (Ayo’s house) etc. There are other possible relationships such as (i) place ‘eti odo’
(River bank), (ii) ‘time’ ale ana, (Yesterday night) use e.g ‘Iwe eri’ (Cerificate) material ‘Irun
agbon’ (Beard).
Adjectives in English and Yoruba exhibits significant differences. First Yoruba adjectives do
not mark degree of comparison as observed in English. In English the comparative and

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___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)

superlative degrees are marked by addition of ‘_er’ or ‘_est’ or ‘more’ and ‘most’ as the case
may be e.g.
Tall Taller Tallest
Beautiful More beautiful Most beautiful

Structures like the above do not exists in Yoruba adjectives, Rather Yoruba uses ‘ju’ and
‘julo’ to indicate a higher quantity or quality of the phenomenon being described. This
expresses an idea of surpassing i.e having more of a particular quality. This is perhaps why
Yoruba learners of English who are yet to acquire proficiency in the use of English often say
“Yemi fine pass Busayo” the idea of surpass in Yoruba’s “ju” or “julo” is transferred to
English.
Another problematic area is the word order of adjectives and nouns qualified in both
languages. While adjectives in Yoruba comes after the noun modified adjectives comes
before their nouns in English. e.g.
Omo buruku (boy bad)
Ile giga (building tall)
In English, the correct order will be:
Bad boy
Tall building

English and Yoruba Proverbs

Both languages make use of proverbs to embellish their discourse. In fact it is a mark of
wisdom and erudition to interlace utterances with appropriate proverbs when speaking in both
languages. However in Yoruba cultural practices, proverbs are considered exclusive preserve
of the elders. Though the youths are not strictly prohibited from using proverbs but they must
accompany such proverbs with what Olaoye (1993) termed “cultural apology” such as “Toto
o se bi owe” ‘or “E fori ji mi” I crave your indulgence for speaking in proverbs or I beg of
your pardon. Though proverbs abound in English that could be employed for use when the
need arises, experience has shown that most Yoruba English learners prefer to translate or
transliterate Yoruba proverbs into English and this often leads to clumsiness in language
processing.

Loan Words
No language is an island. Every human language is known to have borrowed words and
expression from other language through contacts. Yoruba has borrowed many words from
English, while English has done the same from French, Latin Greek etc. Such borrowed
words are known as loan words. They are words taken over from one language into the
vocabulary of another language. Because most Yoruba words end with a vowel and
consonant clusters are not usually observed, most borrowed words of English into Yoruba
undergo some morphological changes reflecting this phenomenon. The consequence of this is
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___Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK (www.eajournals.org)

that Yoruba learners of English tend to pronounce the original word in English as adapted
when borrowed into Yoruba language.

RECOMMENDATIONS
From the discussion so far, it would be observed that English and Yoruba morphological
systems have both similarities and differences. While the similarities facilitate the learning of
English by a Yoruba learner, the differences constitute major sources of errors in English. It
is in view of this that it is being recommended here that English language teachers in a
second language situation like Nigeria should endeavour to undertake contrastive analysis of
the mother tongue of the learners and the target language
If a language teacher engages in contrastive study of language as done above, he will be in a
good stead to evaluate the language and culture contents of textbooks. It will afford him an
opportunity to prepare new language teaching materials and diverse language testing
techniques. It will also facilitate a cultural understanding of certain underlying factors that
predisposes students to some deficiencies in target language competence.

CONCLUSION
This paper attempted a contrastive study of Yoruba and English languages. It establishes the
preeminent position of English language in Nigeria’s linguistic firmament and posits that an
average Nigerian needs to learn and acquire proficiency in the use of English if he is to
adequately fulfill his roles in the society. It agrees with earlier scholars who have asserted
that most errors observed in English language use of most bilinguals are traceable to their
first language and thus examines the similarities and differences in the morphological
systems of English and Yoruba. This was done with a view to understand how differences in
the systems predisposes learners of English to committing errors in the target language.

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