This book addresses the question whether Educated Indian English is more syllable-timed than Brit... more This book addresses the question whether Educated Indian English is more syllable-timed than British English from two standpoints: production and perception. Many post-colonial varieties of English, which are mostly spoken as a second language in countries such as India, Nigeria and the Philippines, are thought to have a syllable-timed rhythm, whereas first language varieties such as British English are characterized as being stress-timed. While previous studies mostly relied on a single acoustic correlate of speech rhythm, usually duration, the author proposes a multidimensional approach to the production of speech rhythm that takes into account various acoustic correlates. The results reveal that the two varieties differ with regard to a number of dimensions, such as duration, sonority, intensity, loudness, pitch and glottal stop insertion. The second part of the study addresses the question whether the difference in speech rhythm between Indian and British English is perceptually relevant, based on intelligibility and dialect discrimination experiments. The results reveal that speakers generally find the rhythm of their own variety more intelligible and that listeners can identify which variety a speaker is using on the basis of differences in speech rhythm.
The book is concerned with the acquisition of English phonology, both segmental and suprasegmenta... more The book is concerned with the acquisition of English phonology, both segmental and suprasegmental, by learners of English as a second language, as a third language and by speakers of a postcolonial (“new”) variety of English. It focuses on the acquisition process and factors influencing it, based on insights from all three disciplines.
India is the world's most populous country and a hub of linguistic diversity. Within this diverse... more India is the world's most populous country and a hub of linguistic diversity. Within this diverse country, India's Northeast is a region that is historically, geographically, religiously, and linguistically more distinct from the rest of India than probably any other region, but it has received scant attention from academic research. As a locus of contact than the remainder of India; we also find that knowledge of English is more widespread in four of seven states. Furthermore, we examine the potential for Assamese, Hindi, and English to all serve as local linguae francae and discuss the limitations of Census data as a source, ending with proposals of methods with the potential to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of English in the linguistic ecology of the Northeast.
The use of the English language in many countries around the world greatly facilitates internatio... more The use of the English language in many countries around the world greatly facilitates international communication. However, linguists have long pointed out that differences between established and emerging dialects of English may lead to miscommunication, especially because many users of the language may not be aware of many of these differences.
Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2023
Previous research investigating the vowels of Hong Kong English (HKE), a postcolonial variety of ... more Previous research investigating the vowels of Hong Kong English (HKE), a postcolonial variety of English, has suggested mergers between several pairs of vowels. This evidence stems from speakers who grew up before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. Given the enormous political and social changes since then, we investigate whether we can detect recent diachronic change in the vowels of HKE. Wordlist vowel data (in carrier phrases) sampling 14 lexical sets from 20 L1 Cantonesespeaking university students was analysed with regard to F1 and F2 (Lobanov-normalised) and duration. Potential vowel mergers were assessed through Support Vector Machines (SVM). Results confirm previous research with regard to mergers between DRESS-TRAP, THOUGHT-LOT and FLEECE-KIT due to great overlap in F1, F2 and duration. However, GOOSE and FOOT are relatively distinct, in contrast to previous research, possibly indicating recent diachronic change.
Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023), 2023
We report an experiment investigating the relative weighting of acoustic cues (vowel quality, int... more We report an experiment investigating the relative weighting of acoustic cues (vowel quality, intensity, duration and f0) in lexical stress perception in Indian English (IndE), compared with Southern Standard British English (SSBE). GLMM modelling of responses shows both similarities (e.g. vowel quality was by far the most important cue for both IndE and SSBE) and differences (IndE listeners were less sensitive to all cues except duration, and made least use of f0). Differentiating IndE participants according to L1 background (Indo-Aryan vs Dravidian), however, reveals a finer-grained picture, with L1 Indo-Aryan listeners exhibiting cue hierarchy and degree of cue strength that are closer to SSBE listeners. For L1 Dravidian listeners, while vowel quality remains the most important cue, the strength of this cue, and that of intensity, are significantly lower than for L1 Indo-Aryan and SSBE listeners. At the same time, duration ranks more highly for these listeners.
Most New Englishes are generally classified as syllable-timed and many L1 varieties of English as... more Most New Englishes are generally classified as syllable-timed and many L1 varieties of English as stress-timed. However, much empirical work on varieties of English and other languages has shown that a categorical distinction between discrete rhythm classes is not commensurate with the empirical evidence. Moreover, the comparability of published research is hampered by a lack of methodological standardisation. This chapter provides a step-by-step guide for researchers and charts new avenues for future enquiries, illustrated with a case study comparing Pakistani, Nigerian, Philippine and British English. Results indicate that the first three can be described as more syllabletimed than British English, but also that a binary classification of syllable-vs. stress-timed does not fully do justice to the results.
The term 'colonial lag' has been used to refer to the loss of a language feature in an ancestor v... more The term 'colonial lag' has been used to refer to the loss of a language feature in an ancestor variety, while the same feature is maintained in a (post-)colonial variety derived from it. Recent research has been very critical of this concept, suggesting that it plays a role only at very specific points in the development of postcolonial varieties, if at all. The present study's goal is to show that colonial lag (or, to use a more neutral term, 'feature retention') can play an important role in the development of specific linguistic features of postcolonial varieties of English. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that colonial lag/feature retention is mediated by substrate influence, the sociolinguistic history of the use of English in a specific country or context, and influence between postcolonial varieties. The results, derived from several corpora, show that the negative scalar conjunction and that too is a case of colonial lag/feature retention in Indian English, and has been retained to variable degrees in other South Asian varieties, from where it might have spread to SouthEast Asian varieties.
Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. Ho... more Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. However, there is little empirical research on prosodic aspects of English in the region. This paper provides a comparative phonetic analysis of several pitch parameters (pitch level, range, dynamism, rate of change, variability in rate of change, and tone rate) in English language data from Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad that comprises read and spontaneous speech from 243 speakers. The results show that a wide pitch range and a high degree of variability in pitch, as mentioned in previous works, are not necessarily characteristic of English in the Caribbean overall, but that there are considerable crossterritorial prosodic differences, with English in Trinidad showing more variability than in Dominica and Grenada, particularly among female speakers. Socioprosodic variation, largely specific to Trinidad, was also identified.
The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of va... more The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of variability in pitch may be considered a characteristic, endonormative feature of Trinidadian English (TrinE) at the level of speech production and contribute to what is popularly described as 'sing-song' prosody. Based on read and spontaneous data from 111 speakers, we analyze pitch level, range, and dynamism in TrinE in comparison to Southern Standard British (BrE) and Educated Indian English (IndE) and investigate sociophonetic variation in TrinE prosody with a view to these global F0 parameters. Our findings suggest that a large pitch range could potentially be considered an endonormative feature of TrinE that distinguishes it from other varieties (BrE and IndE), at least in spontaneous speech. More importantly, however, it is shown that a high degree of pitch variation in terms of range and dynamism is not as much characteristic of TrinE as a whole as it is of female Trinidadian speakers. An important finding of this study is that pitch variation patterns are not homogenous in TrinE, but systematically sociolinguistically conditioned across gender, age, and ethnic groups, and rural and urban speakers. The findings thus reveal that there is a considerable degree of systematic local differentiation in TrinE prosody. On a more general level, the findings may be taken to indicate that endonormative tendencies and sociolinguistic differentiation in TrinE prosody are interlinked.
The question of whether and how women and men differ in their language is a topic of keen interes... more The question of whether and how women and men differ in their language is a topic of keen interest both to scholars and to the general public, including in India. Scholarly interest in this topic has resulted in a steady stream of publications on gender-based variation in language. Publications intended for a general readership, such as Gray's () book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, have been as popular in India as in other countries (see Valentine : ). While at least some Indians appear to be receptive to such publications, originally written for a Western audience, it is unclear to what extent gender identities in India are constructed in a manner similar to that in Western countries. There is no reason to assume that 'gender means the same across communities', an attitude that Valentine (: ) criticised as prevalent in previous research. Overall, then, gender-based variation in language appears to be a topic of lively debate in India as in many other countries. More than just being of public interest, stereotypes related to gender-based differences in language may also be harmful if they are the basis of discrimination or sanction when individuals do not conform to stereotypical, gendered communicative practices. It is therefore vital that we develop a clearer, empirical analysis of gender-based variation in language, and that not just for varieties such as American and British English (BrE), but, in a cross-cultural perspective, also for varieties such as Indian and Singapore English. Our current state of knowledge in this regard is fairly limited as there has been little research on gender-based variation in varieties of English spoken in India and, more generally, countries where English is used as a second language (ESL).
The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory... more The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory analysis of formal speeches given in the Scottish Parliament by 49 speakers (members of parliament and the general public), it examines whether an underlying rhotic standard exists for SSE speakers from all over Scotland, whether and where rhotics are realized as trills/taps or approximants, and what factors influence variation in the realization and distribution of rhotics. The results show that SSE is variably rhotic with 54% of all non-linking coda /r/ realized, and that trills/taps are more frequent in intervocalic (onset and linking coda) position. The findings contradict the idea of SSE being generally rhotic but rather confirm previous reports of increasing occurrence of non-rhoticity, not just by specific speaker groups, but also in a formal context. They further show that variation in rhotics in SSE foremost tends to be affected by language-internal than language-external factors.
Postcolonial varieties of English, used in countries such as Nigeria, the Philippines and India, ... more Postcolonial varieties of English, used in countries such as Nigeria, the Philippines and India, are influenced by local ("endonormative") and external ("exonormative") forces, the latter often in the form of British/American English. In the ensuing stylistic continuum, informal speech is more endonormatively oriented than formal/educated speech-which is, in turn, clearly distinguishable from British/American English. The formal subvariety is often regarded as the incipient local standard and is commonly less marked by L1 influence than the informal subvariety. Nigerian English (NigE) is the most widely spoken African variety of English, but empirical/quantitative descriptions are rare. In this pilot study, we present an acoustic analysis of eleven phonological monophthongs and two phonological diphthongs that are commonly monophthongised. A total of 811 occurrences, produced in formal contexts by nine educated speakers of NigE with L1 Igbo, was extracted from the ICE Nigeria corpus and analysed acoustically (Lobanov-normalised vowel formants at vowel midpoint). Results show that the NigE speakers reduced the thirteen vowel system to a total of nine distinct phonemes that closely resembles the L1 Igbo vowel inventory. This result suggests substantial L1 influence even at the level of Formal NigE.
This chapter reviews the existing empirical research on the structural features of Hong Kong Engl... more This chapter reviews the existing empirical research on the structural features of Hong Kong English (HKE). Among postcolonial varieties of English, HKE is an unusual case in that the territory's emancipation from the colonial power was not accompanied by self-rule, but by what is locally called the "handover" of Hong Kong to mainland China. Thus, a relative lack in institutional entrenchment as well as a continuing turnover in population raises questions as to whether HKE is a "real/"focussed" variety. In addition to influence on HKE from Cantonese, the chapter addresses the sociolinguistics of Hong Kong as a globalised city by discussing the influence of local varieties of English used by speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by the South Asian and SouthEast Asian communities and speakers of English as a Native Language from so-called Inner Circle countries such as the United States. Finally, the chapter considers possible scenarios for the linguistic future of Hong Kong, involving Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, as well as for the future of HKE: On the one hand, an exonormative development with increasing Americanisation, and, on the other hand, an endonormative development with increasing reliance on a local identity and local norms.
Less than three decades after the launch of the International Corpus of English project, corpus-b... more Less than three decades after the launch of the International Corpus of English project, corpus-based research on world Englishes has enjoyed continued success. A wide variety of corpora and databases are now available to researchers, which allow for the exploration of very large datasets of varieties of English all over the globe, including historical data, as found in diachronic corpora that have recently been released for varieties other than British or American English (for example, Australian, Ghanaian, Indian, Philippine, or Singapore Englishes). Research in the field has also been enriched by the emergence of new models of analysis of world Englishes (beyond the Three Circles and the dynamic model), which take into account the social dynamics of the 21st century, such as mobility , globalization and Americanization. The papers in this special issue set out to make a contribution to our understanding of general patterns of language change, and reveal how major theoretical explanations of language variation and change are better understood through the broad lens of corpus-based research on world Englishes.
This book addresses the question whether Educated Indian English is more syllable-timed than Brit... more This book addresses the question whether Educated Indian English is more syllable-timed than British English from two standpoints: production and perception. Many post-colonial varieties of English, which are mostly spoken as a second language in countries such as India, Nigeria and the Philippines, are thought to have a syllable-timed rhythm, whereas first language varieties such as British English are characterized as being stress-timed. While previous studies mostly relied on a single acoustic correlate of speech rhythm, usually duration, the author proposes a multidimensional approach to the production of speech rhythm that takes into account various acoustic correlates. The results reveal that the two varieties differ with regard to a number of dimensions, such as duration, sonority, intensity, loudness, pitch and glottal stop insertion. The second part of the study addresses the question whether the difference in speech rhythm between Indian and British English is perceptually relevant, based on intelligibility and dialect discrimination experiments. The results reveal that speakers generally find the rhythm of their own variety more intelligible and that listeners can identify which variety a speaker is using on the basis of differences in speech rhythm.
The book is concerned with the acquisition of English phonology, both segmental and suprasegmenta... more The book is concerned with the acquisition of English phonology, both segmental and suprasegmental, by learners of English as a second language, as a third language and by speakers of a postcolonial (“new”) variety of English. It focuses on the acquisition process and factors influencing it, based on insights from all three disciplines.
India is the world's most populous country and a hub of linguistic diversity. Within this diverse... more India is the world's most populous country and a hub of linguistic diversity. Within this diverse country, India's Northeast is a region that is historically, geographically, religiously, and linguistically more distinct from the rest of India than probably any other region, but it has received scant attention from academic research. As a locus of contact than the remainder of India; we also find that knowledge of English is more widespread in four of seven states. Furthermore, we examine the potential for Assamese, Hindi, and English to all serve as local linguae francae and discuss the limitations of Census data as a source, ending with proposals of methods with the potential to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the role of English in the linguistic ecology of the Northeast.
The use of the English language in many countries around the world greatly facilitates internatio... more The use of the English language in many countries around the world greatly facilitates international communication. However, linguists have long pointed out that differences between established and emerging dialects of English may lead to miscommunication, especially because many users of the language may not be aware of many of these differences.
Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2023
Previous research investigating the vowels of Hong Kong English (HKE), a postcolonial variety of ... more Previous research investigating the vowels of Hong Kong English (HKE), a postcolonial variety of English, has suggested mergers between several pairs of vowels. This evidence stems from speakers who grew up before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China. Given the enormous political and social changes since then, we investigate whether we can detect recent diachronic change in the vowels of HKE. Wordlist vowel data (in carrier phrases) sampling 14 lexical sets from 20 L1 Cantonesespeaking university students was analysed with regard to F1 and F2 (Lobanov-normalised) and duration. Potential vowel mergers were assessed through Support Vector Machines (SVM). Results confirm previous research with regard to mergers between DRESS-TRAP, THOUGHT-LOT and FLEECE-KIT due to great overlap in F1, F2 and duration. However, GOOSE and FOOT are relatively distinct, in contrast to previous research, possibly indicating recent diachronic change.
Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS 2023), 2023
We report an experiment investigating the relative weighting of acoustic cues (vowel quality, int... more We report an experiment investigating the relative weighting of acoustic cues (vowel quality, intensity, duration and f0) in lexical stress perception in Indian English (IndE), compared with Southern Standard British English (SSBE). GLMM modelling of responses shows both similarities (e.g. vowel quality was by far the most important cue for both IndE and SSBE) and differences (IndE listeners were less sensitive to all cues except duration, and made least use of f0). Differentiating IndE participants according to L1 background (Indo-Aryan vs Dravidian), however, reveals a finer-grained picture, with L1 Indo-Aryan listeners exhibiting cue hierarchy and degree of cue strength that are closer to SSBE listeners. For L1 Dravidian listeners, while vowel quality remains the most important cue, the strength of this cue, and that of intensity, are significantly lower than for L1 Indo-Aryan and SSBE listeners. At the same time, duration ranks more highly for these listeners.
Most New Englishes are generally classified as syllable-timed and many L1 varieties of English as... more Most New Englishes are generally classified as syllable-timed and many L1 varieties of English as stress-timed. However, much empirical work on varieties of English and other languages has shown that a categorical distinction between discrete rhythm classes is not commensurate with the empirical evidence. Moreover, the comparability of published research is hampered by a lack of methodological standardisation. This chapter provides a step-by-step guide for researchers and charts new avenues for future enquiries, illustrated with a case study comparing Pakistani, Nigerian, Philippine and British English. Results indicate that the first three can be described as more syllabletimed than British English, but also that a binary classification of syllable-vs. stress-timed does not fully do justice to the results.
The term 'colonial lag' has been used to refer to the loss of a language feature in an ancestor v... more The term 'colonial lag' has been used to refer to the loss of a language feature in an ancestor variety, while the same feature is maintained in a (post-)colonial variety derived from it. Recent research has been very critical of this concept, suggesting that it plays a role only at very specific points in the development of postcolonial varieties, if at all. The present study's goal is to show that colonial lag (or, to use a more neutral term, 'feature retention') can play an important role in the development of specific linguistic features of postcolonial varieties of English. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that colonial lag/feature retention is mediated by substrate influence, the sociolinguistic history of the use of English in a specific country or context, and influence between postcolonial varieties. The results, derived from several corpora, show that the negative scalar conjunction and that too is a case of colonial lag/feature retention in Indian English, and has been retained to variable degrees in other South Asian varieties, from where it might have spread to SouthEast Asian varieties.
Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. Ho... more Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. However, there is little empirical research on prosodic aspects of English in the region. This paper provides a comparative phonetic analysis of several pitch parameters (pitch level, range, dynamism, rate of change, variability in rate of change, and tone rate) in English language data from Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad that comprises read and spontaneous speech from 243 speakers. The results show that a wide pitch range and a high degree of variability in pitch, as mentioned in previous works, are not necessarily characteristic of English in the Caribbean overall, but that there are considerable crossterritorial prosodic differences, with English in Trinidad showing more variability than in Dominica and Grenada, particularly among female speakers. Socioprosodic variation, largely specific to Trinidad, was also identified.
The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of va... more The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of variability in pitch may be considered a characteristic, endonormative feature of Trinidadian English (TrinE) at the level of speech production and contribute to what is popularly described as 'sing-song' prosody. Based on read and spontaneous data from 111 speakers, we analyze pitch level, range, and dynamism in TrinE in comparison to Southern Standard British (BrE) and Educated Indian English (IndE) and investigate sociophonetic variation in TrinE prosody with a view to these global F0 parameters. Our findings suggest that a large pitch range could potentially be considered an endonormative feature of TrinE that distinguishes it from other varieties (BrE and IndE), at least in spontaneous speech. More importantly, however, it is shown that a high degree of pitch variation in terms of range and dynamism is not as much characteristic of TrinE as a whole as it is of female Trinidadian speakers. An important finding of this study is that pitch variation patterns are not homogenous in TrinE, but systematically sociolinguistically conditioned across gender, age, and ethnic groups, and rural and urban speakers. The findings thus reveal that there is a considerable degree of systematic local differentiation in TrinE prosody. On a more general level, the findings may be taken to indicate that endonormative tendencies and sociolinguistic differentiation in TrinE prosody are interlinked.
The question of whether and how women and men differ in their language is a topic of keen interes... more The question of whether and how women and men differ in their language is a topic of keen interest both to scholars and to the general public, including in India. Scholarly interest in this topic has resulted in a steady stream of publications on gender-based variation in language. Publications intended for a general readership, such as Gray's () book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, have been as popular in India as in other countries (see Valentine : ). While at least some Indians appear to be receptive to such publications, originally written for a Western audience, it is unclear to what extent gender identities in India are constructed in a manner similar to that in Western countries. There is no reason to assume that 'gender means the same across communities', an attitude that Valentine (: ) criticised as prevalent in previous research. Overall, then, gender-based variation in language appears to be a topic of lively debate in India as in many other countries. More than just being of public interest, stereotypes related to gender-based differences in language may also be harmful if they are the basis of discrimination or sanction when individuals do not conform to stereotypical, gendered communicative practices. It is therefore vital that we develop a clearer, empirical analysis of gender-based variation in language, and that not just for varieties such as American and British English (BrE), but, in a cross-cultural perspective, also for varieties such as Indian and Singapore English. Our current state of knowledge in this regard is fairly limited as there has been little research on gender-based variation in varieties of English spoken in India and, more generally, countries where English is used as a second language (ESL).
The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory... more The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory analysis of formal speeches given in the Scottish Parliament by 49 speakers (members of parliament and the general public), it examines whether an underlying rhotic standard exists for SSE speakers from all over Scotland, whether and where rhotics are realized as trills/taps or approximants, and what factors influence variation in the realization and distribution of rhotics. The results show that SSE is variably rhotic with 54% of all non-linking coda /r/ realized, and that trills/taps are more frequent in intervocalic (onset and linking coda) position. The findings contradict the idea of SSE being generally rhotic but rather confirm previous reports of increasing occurrence of non-rhoticity, not just by specific speaker groups, but also in a formal context. They further show that variation in rhotics in SSE foremost tends to be affected by language-internal than language-external factors.
Postcolonial varieties of English, used in countries such as Nigeria, the Philippines and India, ... more Postcolonial varieties of English, used in countries such as Nigeria, the Philippines and India, are influenced by local ("endonormative") and external ("exonormative") forces, the latter often in the form of British/American English. In the ensuing stylistic continuum, informal speech is more endonormatively oriented than formal/educated speech-which is, in turn, clearly distinguishable from British/American English. The formal subvariety is often regarded as the incipient local standard and is commonly less marked by L1 influence than the informal subvariety. Nigerian English (NigE) is the most widely spoken African variety of English, but empirical/quantitative descriptions are rare. In this pilot study, we present an acoustic analysis of eleven phonological monophthongs and two phonological diphthongs that are commonly monophthongised. A total of 811 occurrences, produced in formal contexts by nine educated speakers of NigE with L1 Igbo, was extracted from the ICE Nigeria corpus and analysed acoustically (Lobanov-normalised vowel formants at vowel midpoint). Results show that the NigE speakers reduced the thirteen vowel system to a total of nine distinct phonemes that closely resembles the L1 Igbo vowel inventory. This result suggests substantial L1 influence even at the level of Formal NigE.
This chapter reviews the existing empirical research on the structural features of Hong Kong Engl... more This chapter reviews the existing empirical research on the structural features of Hong Kong English (HKE). Among postcolonial varieties of English, HKE is an unusual case in that the territory's emancipation from the colonial power was not accompanied by self-rule, but by what is locally called the "handover" of Hong Kong to mainland China. Thus, a relative lack in institutional entrenchment as well as a continuing turnover in population raises questions as to whether HKE is a "real/"focussed" variety. In addition to influence on HKE from Cantonese, the chapter addresses the sociolinguistics of Hong Kong as a globalised city by discussing the influence of local varieties of English used by speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by the South Asian and SouthEast Asian communities and speakers of English as a Native Language from so-called Inner Circle countries such as the United States. Finally, the chapter considers possible scenarios for the linguistic future of Hong Kong, involving Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, as well as for the future of HKE: On the one hand, an exonormative development with increasing Americanisation, and, on the other hand, an endonormative development with increasing reliance on a local identity and local norms.
Less than three decades after the launch of the International Corpus of English project, corpus-b... more Less than three decades after the launch of the International Corpus of English project, corpus-based research on world Englishes has enjoyed continued success. A wide variety of corpora and databases are now available to researchers, which allow for the exploration of very large datasets of varieties of English all over the globe, including historical data, as found in diachronic corpora that have recently been released for varieties other than British or American English (for example, Australian, Ghanaian, Indian, Philippine, or Singapore Englishes). Research in the field has also been enriched by the emergence of new models of analysis of world Englishes (beyond the Three Circles and the dynamic model), which take into account the social dynamics of the 21st century, such as mobility , globalization and Americanization. The papers in this special issue set out to make a contribution to our understanding of general patterns of language change, and reveal how major theoretical explanations of language variation and change are better understood through the broad lens of corpus-based research on world Englishes.
The question of whether and how women and men differ in their language is a topic of keen interes... more The question of whether and how women and men differ in their language is a topic of keen interest both to scholars and to the general public, including in India. Scholarly interest in this topic has resulted in a steady stream of publications on gender-based variation in language. Publications intended for a general readership, such as Gray's () book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, have been as popular in India as in other countries (see Valentine : ). While at least some Indians appear to be receptive to such publications, originally written for a Western audience, it is unclear to what extent gender identities in India are constructed in a manner similar to that in Western countries. There is no reason to assume that 'gender means the same across communities', an attitude that Valentine (: ) criticised as prevalent in previous research. Overall, then, gender-based variation in language appears to be a topic of lively debate in India as in many other countries. More than just being of public interest, stereotypes related to gender-based differences in language may also be harmful if they are the basis of discrimination or sanction when individuals do not conform to stereotypical, gendered communicative practices. It is therefore vital that we develop a clearer, empirical analysis of gender-based variation in language, and that not just for varieties such as American and British English (BrE), but, in a cross-cultural perspective, also for varieties such as Indian and Singapore English. Our current state of knowledge in this regard is fairly limited as there has been little research on gender-based variation in varieties of English spoken in India and, more generally, countries where English is used as a second language (ESL). The bulk of research in this area has focused on varieties of English as a native language (ENL), which, notwithstanding
Based on a diachronic newspaper corpus, this study analyses change in the use of the progressive ... more Based on a diachronic newspaper corpus, this study analyses change in the use of the progressive in the Indian English (IndE) settler strand and indigenous strand varieties from 1900 to 2000, comparing it to developments in British English (BrE). Results indicate that these three varieties showed distinct patterns of usage. The IndE indigenous strand reveals evidence of substrate transfer in the use of perfect progressives and unbounded/undelimited habitual progres-sives. Some of the resulting usage patterns appear to have been carried over to the IndE settler strand. Diachronically, similar developmental trends can be observed in IndE and BrE, although IndE was slower to adopt these trends ('colonial lag'). By contrast, linguistic features caused by substrate transfer decreased in frequency over time. Overall, diachronic developments do not indicate divergence between IndE and BrE, supporting the analysis of Indian English being in a 'steady state' instead of advancing to full endonormativity.
Widening the Scope of Learner Corpus Research, 2019
With the present study, we investigate the role that temporal adverbials play in the acquisition ... more With the present study, we investigate the role that temporal adverbials play in the acquisition of the alternation between the present perfect and simple past in learner language. We explore learner data at three levels: (i) from typologically different first-language backgrounds (viz. German-and Cantonese-speaking learners of English) in order to differentiate between L1-specific and universal acquisition features, (ii) at different grade/proficiency levels (based on the amount of instruction) in order to trace possible advances in the acquisition sequences from school pupils to university learners; and (iii) investigating different modes of communication (viz. spoken and written) in order to test if we can see any effects that can be attributed to the respective communicative mode. Our findings indicate dynamic trajectories from level to level, while a noticeable progression from school learners to university learners can be observed. Also, significant differences between the spoken and the written mode were detected for all grade levels. 1 We would like to thank Kathrin Kircili for her help with the data coding, two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this chapter and Rosemary Bock for thorough proofreading and stylistic editing. Of course, all remaining errors and infelicities are our responsibility alone.
▪ Compare public discourses around the COVID-19 pandemic across time and two countries (Germany a... more ▪ Compare public discourses around the COVID-19 pandemic across time and two countries (Germany and England) that adopted distinct public policy responses.
Correlates of prominence: Duration, intensity/loudness, f 0 /pitch, sonority Syllable-timing Stre... more Correlates of prominence: Duration, intensity/loudness, f 0 /pitch, sonority Syllable-timing Stress-timing Also: Variability in intensity, loudness, f 0 , variation in sonority Rate of pre-vocalic glottal stop insertion (e.g. <town is> pronounced as [taUnPIz]) Results Is IndE more syllable-timed than BrE? Acoustic correlates of speech rhythm that suggest IndE is more stress-timed than BrE Acoustic correlates of speech rhythm that suggest IndE has a similar rhythm to BrE Acoustic correlates of speech rhythm that suggest IndE is more syllable-timed than BrE Segmental characteristics (acoustic studies) Variable rhoticity Variable realisation of /r/ as [ô ∼ R ∼ r ∼ ô fi ] FACE vowel realised as [e] GOAT vowel realised as [o] Variable merger of the STRUT, COMMa and NURSE vowels, realised as [2 ∼ 5 ∼ @] Tense -lax distinction not consistently maintained Variable /v/ -/w/ merger, realised as [V ∼ w] Robert Fuchs Speech Rhythm and Phonology of Standard Indian English The Concept of Speech Rhythm The Speech Rhythm of IndE The Phonology of Standard IndE
Speech rhythm and syllable structure in Indian English Rhythm metrics Data collection and analysi... more Speech rhythm and syllable structure in Indian English Rhythm metrics Data collection and analysis Results Conclusions 1 Rhythm metrics 2 Data collection and analysis 3 Results Rhythm metrics Syllable structure Glottal stops 4 Conclusions Robert Fuchs Speech rhythm and syllable structure in Indian English Rhythm metrics Data collection and analysis Results Conclusions Rhythm and variability Stress-timed languages (English, German) vs. syllable-timed languages (Spanish, French) Robert Fuchs Speech rhythm and syllable structure in Indian English Rhythm metrics Data collection and analysis Results Conclusions Rhythm and variability Stress-timed languages (English, German) vs. syllable-timed languages (Spanish, French) Also: varieties -British/American English vs. Indian, Singapore, Nigerian English Robert Fuchs Speech rhythm and syllable structure in Indian English Rhythm metrics Data collection and analysis Results Conclusions Rhythm and variability Stress-timed languages (English, German) vs. syllable-timed languages (Spanish, French) Also: varieties -British/American English vs. Indian, Singapore, Nigerian English
Three tasks for students to explore sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and World Englishes with... more Three tasks for students to explore sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and World Englishes with online corpora
Impressionistically, many New Englishes have been classified as syllable-timed and many varieties... more Impressionistically, many New Englishes have been classified as syllable-timed and many varieties of English as a Native Language as stress-timed. However, much empirical work on varieties of English and other languages has shown that a categorical distinction between discrete rhythm classes is not commensurate with the empirical evidence. Moreover, the comparability of published research is hampered by a diversity in 'small' methodological choices, where more standardisation is desirable. By contrast, in the actual measurement of speech rhythm, research on New Englishes would benefit from a widening of the methodological paradigm. This chapter takes stock of current practices in this field, provides a step-by-step guide for researchers and charts new avenues for future enquiries.
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