Phonological Features of Basilectal Philippine English: an Exploratory Study

Vol. 5(6), pp. 128-140, August, 2014 DOI: 10.5897/IJEL2014.0586 Article Number: 13202B746106 International Journal of English and Literature ISSN 2141-2626 Copyright © 2014 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/IJEL Full Length Research Paper Phonological features of Basilectal Philippine English: An exploratory study Eden Regala-Flores Department of English and Applied Linguistics, De La Salle University, Manila Philippines. Received 20 February, 2014; Accepted 6 June, 2014 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 Philippine English speakers across the country. Key words: Phonology, sociolinguistics, Philippine English, Basilectal speakers, Basilectal Philippine English speakers, Philippine English phonology. INTRODUCTION Background of the study again to accommodate the use of English in the educational system and to establish its place in such As the additional and official language of Filipinos, contexts. As an official language, English is used in Philippine English (PE) has its distinct characteristics, various domains of function, which may include schools, functions, and forms different from other World English mass media and World Wide Web, business and like, for example, Singaporean English, Malaysian commerce, or government offices. The use of English in English and Thai English (Kachru, 1992). Moreover, its these domains contribute to the acculturation of English acceptance and legitimacy lie in the fact that English has and its “native” speakers’ ways of life, belief system, etc., penetrated the historical, functional, sociocultural, as well into the Filipinos’ psyche and culture—changing, trans- as the creative processes or contexts of the Filipinos forming, or altering their sociocultural face or identity. In (Kachru, 2004). Historically, language policies of the the same vein, the various literary genres, professional country have been formulated and revised time and genres, and news media have been influenced by the E-mail: [email protected]. Author agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Regala-Flores 129 conscious adaptation of the English language by the he categorized as Acrolect (considered formal and high- Filipinos. style), Mesolect (falls somewhere between the prestige of the Acrolect and the informality of the Basilect; often the most widely spoken form of a language, generally being Review of literature used by the middle class), and Basilect (typically differ from the standard language in pronunciation, vocabulary As a legitimate and institutionalized variety of World and grammar, and can often develop into different English (Kachru, 2004), PE, particularly its sound system, languages; a variety of a language used by people from has received considerable attention from scholars. a particular geographic area) following Strevens’ (1982) Attempts at providing a description of the phonology of and Platt and Weber’s (1980) terms for the speakers’ PE started with Llamzon’s (1969) groundbreaking public- styles of talking (p. 44). In his paper, he described the cation on PE, which he then entitled Standard Filipino segmental features (production of vowels and consonant English. After claiming that “there is a standard variety of sounds) of the three groups of Filipino speakers vis-à-vis English which has risen in the Philippines (and it) stands their American counterparts. The following are his or falls short on the premise that there is a sizeable findings: number of native and near-native speakers of English in the country” (p. 84), he then sketched the structure of 1. The vowel and consonant sounds produced by Standard Philippine English (SPE) based on the Acrolect closely resemble those of the General American utterances of the representative speakers identified, English phonemes and are clearly derived from them. alongside his identification of representative speakers of 2. It is noticeable that the phoneme inventory of the SPE and their norms of acceptability as well as his Mesolect resembles that of the National Language recommendation to target SPE in the teaching of English (Filipino). Also, there is a tendency for the Mesolect rather than General American English (GAE). His sketch speakers not to reduce unstressed vowels to the schwa. of the structure of SPE primarily dealt with the phonology The STOP consonants were not aspirated in initial of the then purported (standardized) variety, hoping that positions when followed by a vowel, and sometimes not someone would later on come up with a dictionary of released in final positions. Filipinisms, or “English expressions which are neither 3. Among the Basilect speakers (Cebuano and Ilocano or American nor British, which are acceptable in Filipino Pangasinan, in his study), more substitutions are made educated circles, and are similar to expression patterns than in the Mesolect for the Acrolectal phonemes. in Tagalog” (p. 46). Llamzon (1997), attributed this to their ethnic tongue Amidst the criticisms that were thrown against the bold which forms the substratum. proposal of Llamzon (1969), it could be said that the study of and scholarship in the emerging variety of Following Llamzon’s (1997) group representative spea- English in the Philippines came to be among the most kers of Philippine English, Tayao (2004), conducted a pursued in linguistics in the Philippines. Needless to say, data-based study in an attempt to describe the distinctive descriptions of the phonology of PE were also made by phonological features shared in and between speakers of linguists. Under the mentorship of Llamzon himself, the three groups. The results of her study Martinez (1972, 1975) wrote a (teaching) manual of SPE pronunciation. She did not have original data as basis for …suggest that a number of patterns of variation in the the manual; but rather, she used that of her mentor. A pronunciation of the three groups differ according to the description of PE in the mass media was initially provided social-group membership, thus supporting the notion of by Alberca in 1978 through his doctoral dissertation. In Acrolectal, Mesolectal and Basilectal norms for the PE the same year, Gonzalez and Alberca came out with a accent and the study of PE phonology (p. 86). publication about the same and Gonzalez, a little later in 1985, restated their descriptions in another publication. Her study also showed that among the Basilectal spea- Their descriptions of PE in the mass media included kers, the vowel inventories among Cebuano and Visayan listings of the distinctive phonological features. Casambre speakers showed only three vowels as utilized by the (1986), also made an attempt to characterize the features speakers coming from this group representative. She of PE in the mass media, including its phonological added, however, that among Basilectal Tagalog spea- features, and likewise came out with the same distinctive kers, a five-vowel system would be realized and utilized. features. His thesis, on the other hand, focused on In the recently published, The Handbook of World distinctive phonological features per and across five Englishes (Kachru et al., 2006), Bautista and Gonzalez periods – 1901to1920, 1921 to1945, 1946 to1956, 1957 (2006) summarize previous descriptions of the to1958, and 1968 to1983 – in the English language phonology of PE into the following set of features: teaching history of the Philippines. Llamzon (1997) attempted to describe the phonology 1. Absence of schwa of the various groups of Filipino English speakers, which 2. Absence of aspiration of stops in all positions 130 Int. J. English Lit. ,for [o], [I] for [i], [ε] for [e] provide an initial description of the Basilectal Philippine English [כ] ,[Substitution of [a] for [æ .3 4. Substitution of [s] for [z], [ſ] for [ʒ], [t] for [θ], [d] for [ð], this study only revolved around the description of the English as [p] for [f], [b] for [v] spoken by 48 subjects – 20 male and 28 female. Most of them are ages between 23 to 32, but their age ranges from 18 to 52. All of 5. Simplification of consonant clusters in final position them grew up in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor and 6. Syllable-timed, rather than stress-timed, rhythm only moved to Manila later in their life (that is, after seven years old 7. Shift in placement of accents of age). Thus, all of them have Cebuano as their native language with Tagalog and English as additional languages acquired later

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