From Screen to Street: Vocal and Lexical Appropriation from Hausa-Dubbed Indian Films in Adolescent Peer Interaction in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates how adolescents in the Taraba North Senatorial Zone of Nigeria appropriate vocal and lexical features from Hausa-dubbed Indian films into their everyday peer communication. While existing research on media influence has predominantly focused on behavioral outcomes, visual representation, and lexical borrowing, comparatively little attention has been paid to the recontextualization of media speech, particularly vocal texture, prosody, and stylized lexicon, within adolescent peer networks. Employing a mixed qualitative–computational design, the study draws on ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews, assisted computational analysis of speech patterns, and Manual Diction and Lexicon Technique (MDLT) annotation to document how adolescents selectively imitate, modify, and stabilize heroic, villainous, and comic speech styles encountered in dubbed cinema. Findings reveal that film-derived vocal features, including timbre, pitch, cadence, and rhythm, alongside non-standard lexical items, function as semiotic resources that adolescents deploy to negotiate peer hierarchy, perform toughness, signal group affiliation, and manage symbolic aggression. These practices are especially salient in informal peer-dominated spaces where adult oversight is limited. The study advances the Vocal Influence–Appropriation Model (VIAM) as a heuristic framework for tracing the trajectory from media exposure to socially embedded linguistic practice, highlighting the staged process of exposure, imitation, and contextual appropriation. By foregrounding voice and prosody as performative and indexical resources, the research contributes to youth sociolinguistics, media studies, and African media scholarship, demonstrating that media influence operates not only through content but through the embodied and vocalized forms of speech that structure social meaning in adolescent peer interaction.