GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

The paper carefully assessed the sound system in Ibibio language: the clarity and phonological challenges. Ibibio is spoken in the South-South Nigeria, specifically in Akwa Ibom State and some parts of Cross River State and has been described as having two contrastive level pitches, High and Low. Sound system of a language is not simply an abstract set of phonemes and rules of their realization in different contexts but it is also a collection of phonotactical restrictions on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Every language has its own sound patterns. The phonology of a language is the sound system of that language. Unlike phonetics, which is concerned with the study of speech sounds in general, phonology is concerned primarily with the sound patterns of individual languages. The paper reviewed the concept of sound system and Ibibio language. The Ibibio sound system and phonological challenges of sound system in Ibibio language. It was on this basis that the study concluded that; every language of the world has its own phonemic representations of sounds, that is, the underlying representation of various sounds that make up the language system. The Ibibio language, as spoken at present, has certain identifiable characteristic that distinguishes it from other languages that are genetically distinct. The study identified that the problem of intonation is very pronounced among Ibibio speakers of English. The phonological challenges of Ibibio language is the difficulties in 'speech production', how to pronounce, which speech sound and how to pattern speech sounds to convey meaning in the native speaker's way. One of the recommendations made was the school teachers, management and the parent should look an adequate and correct way of assuaging difficulties in 'speech production' among the younger ones and also see how encourage the children on how to pronounce with speech sound and how to pattern speech sounds to convey meaning in the native speaker's way.