YOD-DROPPING VARIATION IN FIJIAN ENGLISH: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC INVESTIGATION

Abstract

Yod dropping belongs to the field of sociolinguistics that relates to the omission of /j/ sound such as in ‘chew’, ‘tune’, ‘music’, and others. In IPA /j/ sound is similar to /y/ as in ‘yes’. This paper looks at yod dropping for males in Fiji between the ages of 18 to 30 years to evaluate whether or not speakers produce a ‘yod’ before a /u/ vowel. The purpose of this research was to look at (i) if people who speak English in Fiji produce a yod or not, (ii) if the speakers produce a yod, is the production of the yod is conditioned by the phonological environment, and (iii) does the sociolinguistic variable of gender, age, and education impact on the production of yod. This study used quantitative methodology where data was collected using audio recording. The participants read out aloud a paragraph in the English language. This paragraph was transcribed in ELAN software where token words were identified and coded. Jamovi software was used in analysing the data and producing graphical representations of the findings. The major findings revealed that out of the 499 token words, 33.7% did not have a yod. However, 66.3%, which is more than half of the data illustrated that they had yod. The results demonstrate that sociolinguistic variables such as age impact on the production of yod. As in this study, only males were employed; their age group played a distinctive role in influencing the data.

JEL Classification Codes: L33, H44, J24