Phonological Features of Basilectal Philippine English
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Presented at the DLSU Research Congress 2016 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines March 7-9, 2016 Phonological Features of Basilectal Philippine English: An Exploratory Study Eden Regala-Flores, PhD Department of English and Applied Linguistics De La Salle University, Manila [email protected] Abstract: This paper attempts to describe the result of a data-based investigation of the phonology of the basilectal Philippine English as a response to Tupaz’ (2004) challenge to conduct Philippine English studies that would describe not only the “educated English” (the acrolect and mesolect speakers), but the “linguistic practices of genuinely marginalized voices (the basilect speakers) in Philippine society” (p.54), as described by Llamzon, 1997 in Tayao, 2004). The findings of this study provide a description of the phonological features of these “marginalized” voices that include minimally functionally literate Filipinos such as jeepney drivers, nannies, janitors, market vendors, and the like from a particular region and Visayan language variety – Cebuano speakers from Region 7 – to distinguish it from the previous studies that have usually sampled subjects of Luzon origin only. Finally, the paper echoes the call for future studies of Philippine English phonology describing the range of segmental and suprasegmental features of various basilectal PE speakers across the country. Key Words: phonology; sociolinguistics; Philippine English; basilectal speakers Proceedings of the DLSU Research Congress Vol 4 2016 ISSN 2449-3309 Presented at the DLSU Research Congress 2016 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines March 7-9, 2016 1. INTRODUCTION English, which he then entitled Standard Filipino English. After claiming that “there is a As the additional and official language standard variety of English which has arisen of Filipinos, Philippine English (henceforth, in the Philippines [and it] stands or falls short PE) has its distinct characteristics, functions, on the premise that there is a sizeable number and forms different from other World of native and near-native speakers of English Englishes like, for example, Singaporean in the country” (p. 84), he then sketched the English, Malaysian English, and Thai English structure of Standard Philippine English (SPE) (Kachru, 1992). Moreover, its acceptance and based on the utterances of the representative legitimacy lie in the fact that English has speakers identified, alongside his identification penetrated the historical, functional, of representative speakers of SPE and their sociocultural, as well as the creative processes norms of acceptability as well as his or contexts of the Filipinos (Kachru, 2004). recommendation to target SPE in the teaching Historically, language policies of the country of English rather than General American have been formulated and revised time and English (GAE). His sketch of the structure of again to accommodate the use of English in the SPE primarily dealt with the phonology of the educational system and to establish its place in then purported (standardized) variety, hoping such contexts. As an official language, English that someone would later on come up with a is used in various domains of function, which dictionary of Filipinisms, or “English may include schools, mass media and World expressions which are neither American nor Wide Web, business and commerce, or British, which are acceptable in Filipino government offices. The use of English in educated circles, and are similar to expression these domains contribute to the acculturation patterns in Tagalog” (p. 46). of English and its “native” speakers’ ways of Amidst the criticisms that were thrown life, belief system, etc., into the Filipinos’ against the bold proposal of Llamzon (1969), it psyche and culture—changing, transforming, could be said that the study of and scholarship or altering their sociocultural face or identity. in the emerging variety of English in the In the same vein, the various literary genres, Philippines came to be among the most professional genres, and news media have been pursued in linguistics in the Philippines. influenced by the conscious adaptation of the Llamzon (1997) attempted to describe English language by the Filipinos. the phonology of the various groups of Filipino 1.1 Review of literature English speakers, which he categorized as As a legitimate and institutionalized acrolect (considered formal and high-style), variety of World Englishes (Kachru, 2004), PE, mesolect (falls somewhere between the prestige particularly its sound system, has received of the acrolect and the informality of the considerable attention from scholars. Attempts basilect; often the most widely spoken form of a at providing a description of the phonology of language, generally being used by the middle PE started with Llamzon’s (1969) class), and basilect (typically differ from the groundbreaking publication on Philippine standard language in pronunciation, Proceedings of the DLSU Research Congress Vol 4 2016 ISSN 2449-3309 Presented at the DLSU Research Congress 2016 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines March 7-9, 2016 vocabulary, and grammar, and can often 54). These marginalized voices (i.e., the develop into different languages; a variety of a basilectal speakers in this study) include language used by people from a particular minimally functionally literate Filipinos such geographic area) following Strevens’ (1982) and as jeep and tricycle drivers, nannies, janitors, Platt and Weber’s (1980) terms for the and the like, whose speech patterns in English speakers’ styles of talking (p. 44). need to be described. In his paper, he described the This study was set to provide an initial segmental features (production of vowels and description of the phonology of basilectal PE, consonant sounds) of the three groups of particularly the Cebuano speakers from Region Filipino speakers vis-à-vis their American 7 (Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, and Negros Oriental) counterparts. residing in Metro Manila. The researcher Following Llamzon’s (1997) group hopes that the findings of this study may representative speakers of Philippine English, enrich the literature on the phonology of Tayao (2004) conducted a data-based study in Philippine English as a legitimate variety of an attempt to describe the distinctive World Englishes. phonological features shared in and between Answers to the following questions speakers of the three groups. Her study also would be given, after an analysis of the English showed that among the basilectal speakers, the of some 48 Cebuano individuals: vowel inventories among Cebuano and Visayan 1. How may basilectal Philippine speakers showed only three vowels as utilized English be described in terms of its by the speakers coming from this group segmental features such as vowels representative. She added, however, that and consonants? among basilectal Tagalog speakers, a five- 2. How may basilectal Philippine vowel system would be realized and utilized. English be described in terms of its 1.2 Research aims suprasegmental properties such as Tupas (2004), however, posits that stress and intonation patterns? while these descriptive studies provide some insights into the phonological features of 2. METHODOLOGY Philippine English, their overemphasis on mesolectal and acrolectal (or the so-called 2.1 The respondents Given the exploratory nature and purpose of educated) speakers fails to give an adequate this study, which is to provide an initial description picture of the sound system of this variety of of the basilectal Philippine English, this study only English. He laments this incomplete revolved around the description of the English as spoken by 48 subjects – 20 male and 28 female. Most description in arguing that “by focusing simply of them are ages 23 to 32, but their ages range from on ‘educated’ English, studies on Philippine 18 to 52. All of them grew up in Cebu, Bohol, Negros English have lent themselves towards elitist Oriental, and Siquijor and only moved to Manila (socio) linguistics by almost completely later in their life (i.e., after seven years old of age). Thus, all of them have Cebuano as their native ignoring the linguistic practices of genuinely language with Tagalog and English as additional marginalized voices in Philippine society” (p. languages acquired later in their lives. It should be highlighted here that the choice of Cebuano as the Proceedings of the DLSU Research Congress Vol 4 2016 ISSN 2449-3309 Presented at the DLSU Research Congress 2016 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines March 7-9, 2016 substrate language in the current study was the critical segmental and supra- deliberate: to distinguish it from the previous studies that have usually sampled subjects of Luzon segmental features. A sampling of those origin only. This should allow for testing the words and expressions are found in the possibility of language-specific influences – if any – Appendix of this paper. The subjects were to the phonology of (basilectal) PE. The subjects use English only at work or in tape recorded while reading those words school and they claim fair English proficiency across aloud. The resulting tape recordings were the four language macro-skills. Details of their self- ratings of their English language proficiency are then transcribed following the IPA reported in Table 1: Phonetic Alphabet. Figures and tables should be referred to in the text. They should be centered as shown below and must be of good resolution. Where equations are 2.2 Data Collection used, adequate definition of variables and The researcher replicated the data parameters must be given, as shown in the example below. collection procedure used by Tayao (2004) Table 1 and Llamzon (1997). Self-ratings of the English Proficiency of The data were collected between the Respondents January and April 2008 in the researcher’s Macro- Very good Good Fair Poor university and other major cities within skill f % f % f % f % Metro Manila (e.g., Manila, Parañaque, 2.6 21. 52. 23. Quezon City, Pasig, Las Piñas, Reading 1 3 11 05 27 63 9 68 0.0 31. 52. 15. Mandaluyong). The data were gathered Writing 0 0 13 58 28 63 7 79 0.0 21.