Why Ghanaians and Northern Nigerians Pronounce the Strut Vowel Differently from Southern Nigerians

According to African linguist  Augustin Simo Bobda, historically, Ghanaians, Southern Nigeria, Siera leone, the Gambia and Cameroon all pronounced the strut vowel  in cut  with the same quality used to produce cot.

This pronunciation reflects the influence of the first Britons—Scottish and Irish missionaries —to visit coastal areas of West Africa.


Northern Nigeria, however, pronounce the strut vowel as /a/. They pronounce cut as cat.  According to Awonusi (1986), Hausa people were influenced by Britons from Southern England who brought the unrounded version of the strut vowel to them in the late 19th century.

According to Harris(1996), It was around this point that East Africa and Southern Africa were colonised. They ended up trying to emulate the new central and unrounded pronunciation of the strut vowel but produced an open front unrounded vowel instead /a/.


Ghanaian pronunciation witnessed a massive shift in the 80s. A study by Gyasi (1991) showed that Ghanaians around the Coastal Gas preferred pronounce cut as cot.

Another linguist, Adjaye (1987) said younger Ghanaians during the 80s preferred pronouncing cut as cat.

Augustin Simo Bobda wrote in his  paper published in the year 2000 titled THE UNIQUENESS OF GHANAIAN ENGLAISH PRONUNCIATION IN WEST AFRICA—-“Given that Ghanaians had the same colonial experience as Southern Nigerians, Cameroonians, Sierra Leoneans, Gambians with respect to the colonial input  for /ɔ/ there is no justification for their /a/ other than their sensitivity to stigmatized forms and their ever readiness to change to the fashionable form.”

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