ByDAVID DETERDING and ANDY KIRKPATRICK

PRESENTED BYMISS KANOKWHAN SAMPHAN

British/

America

Brunei

Malay

Philippines

Singapore

Cambodia

Indonesia

Laos

Myanmar

Thailand

Vietnam

Smith and Nelson (1985)

Three Basic Levels

1)Word recognition

2)Utterance comprehension

3)Understanding the meaning behind the utterance

It was shown that in syllable-initial position, many ASEAN speakers use

[t] in place of /ϴ/

Ex. FSing: and I think [tiŋk] er anyway you all may er join in the … celebration.

FViet: I don’t have to teach theories [tiriz]

-This feature is found in Sing/Laos/Viet/Phil/Malay/Myan/Indo/Thai

[s] in place of /ϴ/

Ex. Fcambo: we went to the market and tried to explore something [sΛmsIŋ] already and erm we think [sIŋ] that maybe on the last day.

*the same as Thai pronunciation*Words with /ϴ/ or /ð/ /s/ or /z/

The result = does not cause much of a problem

[f] in place of an initial /ϴ/

MISUNDERSTANDING !!!

• Singapore

• Estuary English

Ex. three [fri:] nights free nights, free life*Using of [t] in place of /ϴ/ causes problem for China and Japan*

Ex. take (bus number) three three is heard as “dig tree tree” !!!

“English spoken by Singaporeans is easy

to understand”

/t/ can sometimes sound like [d]

an influence from Malaysia

Ex. Fphil: this is my second time [daIm] Fsing: so grammar is taught [dƆ:t] in a

more structured way

occurred in Phil, Viet, Sing, and Malay

Minimal aspiration

Initial /p/ sounds like [b]

Ex. FMyan: pardon? [ba:dƏn] MCamb: I find most car in Singapore

pretty

[brItI] new.

occurred in Myan, Camb, and Sing

The result = does not appear to disrupt communication

The Romanization of Thai language influences the pronunciation of English. Thai students read all /ph/ into /p/,/kh/ into /k/, /p/ into /b/, /t/ into /d/, /k/ into /g/. This kind of articulation definitely has a strong influence on the students who have no chance to study English Phonetics.

Ex. One of my friend asked “Can I have some baber?”. In fact, she would like to say paper, but due to her mistake of pronunciation of /b/ instead of /p/. This sound can cause the misunderstanding of the listener and I could not respond her immediately.

/eI / and /ƏƱ/ are often pronounced as long monophthongs in Singapore

Thus /eI / and /ƏƱ/ [e:] and [o:]

occurred in Malaysian Eng, Vietnamese Eng, Thai Eng, and Philippine English

Ex. FPhil: you learn the language in a natural way [we:]

** Lee and Lim (2000) report that Singapore listeners did not want to sound like a speaker who had a diphthogal articulation for /eI / and /ƏƱ/, as they judged him to be pretentious and insincere.

In Thailand the vowel of /ei/ is pronounced as /e/ Ex. “I will beat your TAIL if you TELL

another TALE”.

The result was most of the students in class pronounced “tail” [teil] as [tel] which is the same sound as “tell”.

For British English - /aIƏ/ and /aƱƏ/ are usually presented

as the loss of the middle element. - homophonesEx. shire and shower the vowel is

represented as [aƏ]

For ASEAN like Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Brunei, and Indonesia pronounce /aƱƏ/ as two distinct syllables.

Ex. FIndo: an hour [aƱWƏ] in the airport. (adding of [W])

Full vowel > a schwa (in the first unstressed syllable of a word)

Ex. FMyan: from [frɒm] there we can [kæn] continue [kɒntInju:]

occurred in Sing, Indo, Bru, Phil, and MyanIn ThailandEx. the word “can’t” is pronounced as [kænt]

with full vowel instead of [kƏnt].

“staccato” or “jerky”

Ex. FSing: the communicative [kɒmju:nIkeItiv] approach

The result = clear enunciation

British English baby-talk, TV commercial slogans,

showing irritation or sarcasm, rap chanting

Ex. MThailand: when I have to speak. FIndo: OK, I just er waited for HIM an hour in

the airport. The result = does not cause any

problems for communication

In Thailand Thai language = a tonal language stress becomes the biggest problems of Thais. put the stress on the last syllable eg. computer,

technology, tomorrow, and September. Don't desert me here in the desert!

problem

In Singapore >> the stressed pron. occurs at the end of the utterance

Ex. FBru: So I had so m-, I grew up with a lot of languages around ME.

affects words that are repeated

Ex. MCamb: erm English is very new and very few people speak ENGLISH.

≠ inner circle (America English) gives new info. characteristic of differences between inner and outer-circle Englishes

Summary of instances of idiosyncratic pronunciation

Nationality of speaker

Feature Example

Myanmar [ɑ:] in place of / :/ᴈ Pearl [bɑ:l] beads

Laos Loss of /r/ in initial cluster

Three [ti:] teacher

Laos [n] in place of final /l/

Big holes [hoƱnz]

Vietnam [ʃ] in place of /s/ Some sauce [ʃƆ:s]

Myanmar Insertion of [t] More English than us[Λts]

Nothing in the pronunciation cause problemEx. Fbrun: do you find the course so far? Mthai: mmm? Fbrun: How did you find this course that

we did so far? Lexical problem as using an unusual word Ex. Mindo: So how long long do they have to

sit in the s- er junior high school and senior high school?

** sit stayThe Result = listening skills of the

addressee, words usage

One evidences showed that the pronunciation can cause a problem.

In Myanmar English- the vowel of [ɑ:] in place of [ᴈ:]- /p/ has no aspiration, so it sounds

like [b]

Ex. FMyan: by the way er have you seen any er pearl [bɑ:l]beads at the shopping centre.

FIndo: Bal bead what’s that?

**Not normally found in ASEAN**

- Other aspects of individual information (unfamiliar)

Ex. FSing: She wanted to get the erm Chinese drums for her son.

- PronunciationEx. The use of [n] in place of a final /l/ as the final

consonant in school [sku;n]. (Laos)

The use of [w] instead of /l/ in only [onwi]. (Laos)

The use of [ti:] for three and the use of [ts] instead of /tʃ/ in teacher

The loss of the /r/ in three may cause some problem.

The occurrence of a [t] like “us” [Λts] “arts”

- Problem of pronounce /ϴ/ eg. [ti:] for three

- Thais substitute /W/ for /R/ eg. rabbit to wabbit

- Thai has an L sounds like R called “Gliding of Liquids”

Ex. “rain” can be pronounced as “lain” “crap” can be pronounced as “clap”

-Thais usually drop r Ex. “crap” can be misunderstood as “cap”

Collocation can be one of aspect of intelligibility. For example:

My hair is busy (instead of My hair is messy.)I play computer (instead of I work on the computer.)I closed (opened) the radio (instead of I turned off (on) the radio.)

  Consonants

In ASEAN English, they do not produce word final consonant clusters.

Ex. mon (months), produc (product), and draf (draft)

Lexis -The difference of words used

Ex. cars/automobiles and lorries/trucks in British and American English respectively an “innocent’

-the need to adopt words from local languages to describe indigenous phenomena, as no “English” word for such things exist.

Ex. Malaysia English word “satay” “atap” (a palm thatch used for huts)

The word with one meaning in one variety takes on a different meaning in another.

Ex. In Singapore English, there is the use of word “Christians” which refers only to Protestants.

Coin new words/Adopt words from other languages

Ex. The word “Alphabet” in Singapore English

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz = 26 alphabet