Syllable typologies and the Igbo language

Two broad syllable typologies are accounted for globally following Maddieson (2005): simple syllable structures and complex syllable structures. The latter may be further subdivided into moderately complex and complex syllable structures. Notably, Igbo is said to belong to the category of simple syllable structures. The current study reviews evidence for this typological characterisation, examining patterns from corpora of synchronic varieties. The investigation indicates that there are certain discrepancies. The differences appear not to arise from the structures of natural languages but are explicable as the outcome of the influence of standard language ideologies. Given that current tradition for typological characterisation targets the priority of definitive structural features, the study suggests that a typological modelling built on such ideologies might be suspect. The work thus provides a review of Maddieson’s syllable typological classification, drawing attention to conclusions reached for Igbo, among others. It also presents and analyses parallel evidence, from synchronic dialect corpora. Consequently, ‘standard language ideology’ is introduced as an explanation for the traditional approach and for the observed discrepancies; and the concluding note suggests a priority of language structural properties over standard dialect ideologies in typological characterisations for the linguistics of the future.