David Deterding

The Formants of Monophthong Vowels in Standard Southern British English Pronunciation

The formants of the eleven monophthong vowels of Standard Southern British (SSB) pronunciation of English were measured for five male and five female BBC broadcasters whose speech was included in the MARSEC database. The measurements were made using linear-prediction-based formant tracks overlaid on digital spectrograms for an average of ten instances of each vowel for each speakers, These measurements were taken from connected speech, allowing comparison with previous formant values measured from citation words. I was found that the male vowels were significantly less peripheral in the measurements from connected speech than in measurements from citation words.

The measurement of rhythm: a comparison of Singapore and British English

Abstract This paper investigates the contrasting rhythmic properties of two varieties of English: Singapore English, which is often described as syllable-timed, and British English, which is more usually assumed to be stress-timed. Recordings were made of six speakers of each variety. For each stretch of continuous speech obtained from the recordings, the normalized duration of consecutive syllables (except for the final-syllable) was compared, to derive a variability index (VI). It was found that there is a significantly greater variability in this measure of syllable-to-syllable duration for British English, which supports previous indications that, by comparison, Singapore English might indeed be regarded as being more syllable-timed. Additionally, it was found that there is little evidence of the influence of speaking rate on the measured differences in rhythm, but there is some evidence that the greater frequency of reduced syllables with a schwa in British English contributes to the difference between the two varieties.

Morphology and Syntax

This chapter considers word structure, particularly the presence and absence of suffixes to indicate number and tense, and then discusses other aspects of syntax, including modal verbs such as ‘will’ and ‘would’, the occurrence of the auxiliary verb ‘do’, finite clauses with no subject, the use of determiners such as ‘a’ and ‘the’ before count and non-count nouns, subject-auxiliary inversion in indirect questions, and the use of prepositions between verbs and their objects, such as ‘discuss about’. Attempts are made to quantify the use of the -s suffix on nouns and on verbs and also the occurrence of articles in the spoken data, though other aspects of the syntax of Brunei English are more tentative, relying on a few examples to illustrate various salient features that characterise the structure of sentences. It is finally suggested that many of the patterns found in Brunei English represent regularisation of English and furthermore they are shared by other new varieties of English, so some of the innovative patterns in Brunei may reflect the ways that English is evolving worldwide.

The North Wind versus a Wolf: Short texts for the description and measurement of English pronunciation

For many years, the passage ‘The North Wind and the Sun’ (NWS) has been used for phonetic research into different languages. However, there are many shortcomings with the passage for the description of varieties of English, including the absence of some sounds, such as /[zcy ]/ and syllable-initial /θ/, problems with the text for the measurement of rhythm, and issues regarding acoustic measurements of /ae/ and / I /. An alternative passage, ‘The Boy who Cried Wolf’, is suggested, and measurements of the monophthongs based on recordings of the Wolf passage by three RP British English speakers are compared with similar measurements of the vowels in the NWS passage.

The intonation of Singapore English

The segmental characteristics of the English spoken in Singapore are quite widely described (e.g. Tongue 1979, Platt and Weber 1980, Brown 1988a, Brown 1991). However, the suprasegmental aspects, such as intonation, are less well documented, even though it is widely accepted that it is the suprasegmental aspects that contribute most to the distinctive character of “foreign” accents such as that of Singapore (Brown 1991: 4).

Listening to Estuary English in Singapore

In Singapore, many people are not familiar with Estuary English (EE), the variety of English becoming popular in much of southern England. In the current study, when students listened to interviews with EE speakers and were asked to transcribe orthographically what they heard, most of them had severe problems. Features of pronunciation that contributed to the difficulties included th-fronting, t-glottalling, and fronting of close back vowels, and in many cases even the context of the conversation did not help to resolve the confusion, for example, when three was pronounced with an initial [f]. This article suggests that some exposure to nonstandard accents such as EE would be valuable for students of English because they are quite likely to encounter EE speakers.

Misunderstandings in English as a Lingua Franca: An Analysis of ELF Interactions in South-East Asia

This book explores the nature and causes of misunderstandings in ELF interactions. It is based on a corpus of conversations between English speakers from south and east Asia that helps us investigate what causes misunderstandings, particularly the pronunciation, grammar, word choice, and discourse. The book also considers how such misunderstandings may be signalled and repaired. Finally, it discusses the implications for teaching English around the world and offers guidance to teachers in enabling their students to become highly intelligible.

Standard Malay (Brunei)

Malay (Bahasa Melayu) is a member of the Malayic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. This subgroup includes languages like Gayo in Sumatra (Eades & Hajek 2006), Minangkabau in Sumatra, and Iban in Borneo, as well as many local dialects of Malay found in Borneo, Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, and eastern Indonesia (Adelaar 2005).

Issues in the Acoustic Measurement of Rhythm

This paper focuses on the acoustic measurement of rhythm, using a modified version of the Pairwise Variability Index (PVI) developed by Ling, Grabe and Nolan (J Phonetics 29:217–230, 2000). It considers issues that arise when the PVI is used and how they can be dealt with, and it discusses the effectiveness of the PVI in contrasting the rhythm of 2 varieties of English by comparing recordings of the Wolf passage by 20 Bruneians with similar recordings of British speakers. Finally, there is a discussion of the status of rhythm in the teaching of English, specifically whether it is appropriate for teachers to promote stress-based rhythm in the speech of their students.

Code switching in Malaysia

Contents: Maya Khemlani David/Kuang Ching Hei/James McLellan/Fatimah Hashim: Functions of code switching in the family domain in Malaysia - Jariah Mohd Jan: Code switching for power wielding: Childrens discourse in a Malay family - James McLellan/Rosalind Nojeg: Lexical choice and 3-way code switching in Bau-Jagoi Bidayuh discourse - Maya Khemlani David/Caesar Dealwis: Language Choice, Code switching and Language Shift: The Telegus of Kuching - Kamisah Ariffin: The interaction of language, topic and speakers: Code switching in classroom discourse - Maya Khemlani David/Lim Chin Chye: Language choices of Malaysian youth in and out of the classroom - Paramasivam Muthusamy/M. Rajantheran: Communicative functions of code switching among Tamil undergraduates - Karen Kow Yip Cheng: Code switching in the language classroom: A pedagogical tool? - Richard Powell: Language alternation in Malaysian courtrooms and comparisons with other common law jurisdictions - Maya Khemlani David/David Yoong Soon Chye: Code switching in eldercare - Hadina Habil/Shameem Rafik-Galea: Code switching in organisational email discourse - Maya Khemlani David/James McLellan/Kuang Ching Hei/Ain Nadzimah Abdullah: Code switching practices in newspaper headlines in Malaysia: A 50-year comparative study and lexical analysis - James McLellan: Keeping the beast in its cage: Compartmentalization of English in the Malay world.