An Evaluation of Jowitt's Works on Features of Nigerian English Pronunciation

Six selected works of Jowitt are evaluated in this study using a systematic literature review. The focus is on the Jowitt’s assessment of features of Nigerian English pronunciation, derived from the contact of Nigerians with native English pronunciation and the contact of Nigerian indigenous languages with the native English pronunciation. Within a theoretical framework of sociolinguistics, the study finds out that Jowitt observes British and American English pronunciations to be present in Nigeria. The study also finds out that Nigerian indigenous languages are in contact with the native English pronunciation. Two major findings of the study indicate that Jowitt assesses that the educated Nigerian English pronunciation is marked by joint use of British and American English pronunciations and marked by a combination of Standard and error. For the avoidance of loss of mutual intelligibility in English, it is concluded that only the educated Nigerian English that possesses more exonomative than endonormative features should be considered as an equivalent of RP, contrary to Jowitt’s somewhat categorical support for the presence of exonormative features in the Nigerian English pronunciation.