Sound, Spelling and Diction in Selected Nigerian Social Media Posts

Abstract This study examines relationships between sound, spelling and word choice in selected Nigerian social media posts and comments on TikTok, X and Facebook. It adopts a descriptive qualitative design supported by frequency counts and percentages. The dataset comprises 45 purposively selected textual samples, with 15 from each platform, documented through screenshots. The Ontogenesis Model of the L2 Lexical Representation guides the analysis of connections between pronunciation, spelling and meaning. The primary analytical categories were Comparisons Involving Similar-Sounding or Similarly Spelt Words (60%), Comparisons Involving Homophonous Words (22.2%) and Grammatical and Orthographic Form Patterns (17.8%). The findings show that quantity, possession, number agreement, verb forms and surrounding discourse help establish word meanings and identify appropriate words within sentences. The study concludes that written word choices can be explained through their phonological, orthographic, grammatical and semantic relationships. It offers a contextual application of the lexical model to digital writing and proposes vocabulary teaching and editing activities that connect word forms with their uses in sentences and short messages. Keywords: Nigerian English, digital discourse, homophones, orthography, lexical representation.