ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Nigerian Igbo accent characteristics. The melody for a Nigerian Igbo accent is quite different from that of a general American accent of English. Nigerian Igbo accent goes up and down like a bumpy road, whereas general American English is more like driving up and down an easy grade hill. In the Igbo language, mid-level tones can only follow high tones, not low tones. Nonyelum's accent beautifully illustrates with rhythm and stress, the bumpy road characteristic. In the four-syllable word excellently, she lengthens one of the middle syllables, lent, giving it stress; in a general American accent, it would be relatively unstressed. The Source and Path of Resonance is present in all of the Nigerian Igbo accents in the audio library. It is most clear in the stronger accents of Ijeoma, Linda, Nonyelum, Emmanuel, Chibuzo and Chineda.
