Vincent Nwosu is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. His research interests include prosody, phonetics, verbal arts, and documentation of endangered African languages, among others. In this interview by KINGSLEY ALUMONA, he shares how his work as a Nigerian linguist is contributing to global research on African languages, oral traditions, and phonetic science, and also the importance of language documentation and the science of language in general.

What inspired your interest in linguistics and verbal arts?

My interest in linguistics and verbal arts grew from my personal experience with the Igbo language and its oral traditions. Growing up, I was surrounded by storytelling, chanting, and music — forms of expression where language is not just a medium of communication, but also a vehicle for rhythm, performance, and cultural knowledge. As I advanced in linguistics, I realized that these everyday practices could answer some of the field’s deepest questions: How does tone interact with melody? How do people adapt the phonology of their language when they sing or chant? And what does this reveal about the structure of language itself?

This curiosity led me to pursue research at the intersection of phonetics, phonology, and verbal arts, with a particular focus on Igbo. My doctoral project examines how tones are realized in three art forms — storytelling, mbem chants, and music — compared to everyday speech. By using acoustic analysis and proportional tone-matching plots, I aim to understand how Igbo speakers creatively adapt tone under different performance constraints. This inspiration is both personal and scholarly: I am motivated by a desire to preserve the oral artistry of Igbo while also contributing to debates in linguistics about the relationship between language, music, and performance.

Why is this work important to Nigeria and the global community?

This research is important for both Nigeria and the wider academic community because it brings together theoretical linguistics, language documentation, and cultural preservation. For Nigeria, it highlights the sophistication of Igbo verbal arts, which are central to community life but under-documented in scientific terms. By analyzing how tones and prosody function in storytelling, chanting, and music, I am creating a digital archive of annotated recordings that can serve educators, cultural practitioners, and future generations of Igbo speakers. This is critical at a time when oral traditions risk being lost due to globalisation and language shift.

For the global community, my work expands the scope of laboratory phonology. Most phonological theories have been shaped by stress-based, Indo-European languages. Studying how tone is adapted in song or chant reveals new insights about phonological representation, prosodic structure, and the phonetics–phonology interface. For example, by testing whether automatic and non-automatic downstep are preserved in performance, I can contribute evidence to long-standing debates in tonal theory.

In essence, this work positions Nigerian verbal arts as a global laboratory. They are not just cultural treasures, but also scientific resources that help us understand how human languages function and evolve.

How do your findings impact communities or academic discussions on African languages, especially Nigerian languages?

One of my most recent publications in Glossa focused on how speech and gesture are coordinated in African tonal languages. In many Indo-European languages, gestures tend to align with stressed syllables, the parts of words that carry higher or more dynamic pitch accents. But African tonal languages, like Igbo and Medimba (a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon), do not rely on stress in the same way. Instead, tone primarily distinguishes between words. This raised an important question: Where do gestures “anchor” in such languages if stress is not the organizing principle?

We found that in Medimba, gestures often align with the initial syllable of the stem, while in Igbo, the final syllable of the word tends to attract the gesture. We also discovered that phrase position affects gesture alignment, but in language-specific ways. These findings show that even without stress-based prominence, African tonal languages exhibit systematic patterns in how speech and gesture work together. For Igbo in particular, our results suggest that metrical structure at the level of the tonal foot influences how gestures are timed.

This has two key impacts. Academically, it expands phonetic theory by showing how prosody functions in languages where tone, rather than stress, carries the main communicative load. For Nigerian communities, it highlights how Igbo speakers naturally synchronize language and body movement in storytelling and performance, reinforcing the cultural depth of verbal arts. In short, the study demonstrates that African tonal languages are central to global discussions on how speech and gesture interact, not peripheral to them.

How many Nigerian languages can be said to be dying and what can be done to preserve them?

Experts estimate that nearly 300 Nigerian languages are endangered. Some may disappear within a generation if urgent steps are not taken. Preservation requires action on multiple levels. Linguists must document and archive these languages, schools should include indigenous languages in curricula, and governments and media houses must create spaces where local languages thrive. Communities and families play the most important role by continuing to use their languages in daily life.

How has your academic journey from Nigeria to the United States and Canada shaped your work?

In Nigeria, I developed an awareness of multilingual realities and the urgent need for language preservation. Studying in the United States exposed me to advanced laboratory methods, and, now in Canada, I have gained a strong interdisciplinary approach to research. This journey has allowed me to combine deep cultural knowledge from home with global academic training, making my work both locally grounded and internationally relevant.

What specific contributions have you made in the field of African phonetics and language documentation?

My work has contributed new insights into how prosody shapes communication in Igbo across speech, music, and gesture. In one study, I examined the timing of co-speech gestures in Igbo and showed that their alignment is influenced not only by prosodic structure but also by predictability in the speech signal. For example, vowel harmony patterns condition gesture timing, revealing how tightly prosody, predictability, and multimodal communication are interwoven in Igbo. In another project, I investigated vowel coalescence in children’s songs, demonstrating that rhythmic constraints in music interact with linguistic metrical structure. This work illustrates how music provides a natural laboratory for observing phonological processes in ways that everyday speech alone does not.

I have also extended this research to domains of everyday interaction. My study of infant-directed speech in Igbo showed how caregivers raise pitch and expand pitch range for communicative purposes while still preserving crucial tonal contrasts. This balance highlights the unique challenges of tonal languages in child language development. Similarly, my work on the prosody of negation in Igbo identified elevated pitch and longer durations as consistent cues marking negative sentences, advancing our understanding of how abstract grammatical categories are encoded in prosody. I have also contributed to the documentation of Ika, an endangered Nigerian language, and carried out fieldwork in Cameroon on Medumba and Kejom.

Together, these studies contribute to African phonetics by documenting how tone, rhythm, and prosody interact in Igbo, while also creating resources that preserve the richness of Nigerian languages for the next generation.

What recognition have your contributions received? Has your work been supported?

My research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at respected international conferences. I have received generous and competitive graduate scholarships worth thousands of dollars from both the University of Delaware and the University of Calgary, as well as the Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship. I have also received awards for teaching and leadership in the US and Nigeria. These recognitions have provided both financial support and academic visibility for my work.

What do you hope your research will accomplish in the long term?

In the long term, I hope my research will contribute to both theoretical linguistics and the preservation of African verbal arts. On the theoretical side, my work offers new insights into how prosody, tone, and gesture interact across modalities, especially in tonal languages like Igbo, where the function of pitch differs fundamentally from Indo-European languages. By documenting these interactions in storytelling, chants, and music, my research expands laboratory phonology beyond its Eurocentric focus and provides comparative evidence for universal and language-specific prosodic patterns. These findings can reshape how linguists think about the timing of speech, gesture, and rhythm.

On the community side, I aim to preserve endangered Nigerian languages and their oral traditions through carefully annotated recordings, digital archives, and educational resources. My research bridges academia and cultural heritage by ensuring that linguistic documentation is not just theoretical but also accessible to the very communities whose languages are at risk.

Ultimately, I envision a model where African verbal arts are not only preserved but also serve as resources for teaching, policy, and intergenerational transmission. In this way, my work contributes both to global scholarship and to the empowerment of local communities. (Saturday Tribune)