Pronunciation Features of Kong English ( speakers)

Vowels and Diphthongs 1. Absence of contrasts between long and short vowels e.g. ‘bead’ (/bd/)→‘bid’(/bd/) or vice versa 2. Absence of contrast between //and// e.g. ‘bad’(/bd/)→‘bed’(/bd/) or vice versa 3. Shorting the diphthongs e.g. ‘name’ (//)→‘nem’(//) 4. Absence of reduced vowel in unstressed e.g. ‘absorb’(//)→/ / 5. Substituting// for /ð/ e.g. ‘this’(/ðɪs/)→‘zis’(/zis/) 6. Substituting/d/ for // e.g. ‘those’(/z/)→‘dose’/d/ 7. Substituting/f/ for // e.g. ‘thanks’(//)→‘fanks’(//) 8. Substituting/t/ for // e.g. ‘thin’(//)→‘tin’(//) 9. Substituting/s/ for // e.g. ‘think’ (//)→‘sink’(/s/) 10. Absence of contrast between /l/ and /n/ e.g. ‘light’ (//)→‘night’(//) or vice versa 11. Absence of contrasts between voiced and voiceless sounds e.g. ‘’ (/il/)→‘zeal’ (/zil/) or vice versa 12. Deletion of final /l/ e.g. fool(/ful/)’→‘foo’(/fu/) 13. L-vocalization L-vocalization refers to the realization of /l/ as vowels like /u/ when it is preceded by a back vowel. e.g. ‘fool’ (/ful/)→‘foo-o’ (/ fu/) 14. Substituting/l/ for/r/ e.g. ‘right’(/r/)→‘light’ (//) 15. Substituting/w/ for/r/ e.g. ‘rice’(/r/)→‘wise’(//) 16. Substituting/f/ for/v/ e.g. ‘even’(/'i:vn/)→‘efen’ (/'i:fn/) 17. Substituting/w/ for/v/ e.g. ‘vine’(/vn/)→‘wine’ (/n/), 18. /tr/ and /tw/ clusters are pronounced as /w/ e.g. ‘trim’(/trm/)→‘chwim’(/m/ ) e.g. ‘twin’(/n/)→‘chwin’ (/n/) 19. Substituting/s/ for// e.g. ‘she’(//)→‘see’ (//) structure change 20. Insertion of /t/ or /s/ at the end e.g. ‘option’→‘options’ (//) 21. Insertion of vowel // at the end of the words e.g. ‘miss’→‘missi’(//), ‘tips’→‘tipsi’ (//) 22. Insertion of vowel // in consonant clusters e.g. ‘place’ → ‘palace’(//) 23. Omission of final consonant (new) e.g. ‘help’ /help/ → ‘hell’ /hel/ Suprasegmenal features 24. Inappropriate word . e.g. HAMburger(/h /)→hamBURger (/h/) 25. Inappropriate sentence stress---over-stressing the pronouns and determiners e.g. I will tell you about MY summer holiday e.g. WE enjoyed THIS job very much 26. Syllable-timed rhythm(each syllable has equal duration)

e.g. English speaker: We can WAIT for the BUS is produced as O O HK speaker: WE CAN WAIT FOR THE BUS O O O O O O 27. Absence of linking e.g. ‘a lot of’ is pronounced as ‘a-lot-of’ instead of ‘a-lo-tof’ 28. Absence of elision e.g. ‘next day’ is pronounced as /t / instead of /t / 29. Absence of assimilation e.g. ‘a fatboy’ is pronounced as ‘a-fat-boy’(/- /) instead of ‘a-fap-boy’(/-p /) 30. Inappropriate pause e.g. May I take your coats, Mr and Mrs Mason?’ 31. Inappropriate speech rate e.g. Speech rate is too slow or too fast 32. Inappropriate intonation e.g. Shall we go now?↘ instead of Shall we go now?’↗

References

Chang, J. (1987). Chinese speaker, Learner English: a teacher's guide to interference and other problems (2nd ed) In M. Swan & B. Smith, (Eds.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Chan,A.Y.W.,&Li,D.C.S.(2000).English and Cantonese phonology in contrast: explaining Cantonese ESL learners’ English pronunciation problems. , Culture and Curriculum, 13(1), 67-85.

Deterding, D. (2006). The pronunciation of English by speakers from China. English World-Wide, 27(2), 175-198

Deterding, D. & Wong, J. & Kirkpatrick, A. (2008). The pronunciation of English. English World-Wide 29(2), 148-175. doi:10.1075/eww.29.2.03 det.

Hung, T. N. (2000). Towards a phonology of Hong Kong English. , 19(3), 337-356. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier Database

Wee, L. H. (2008). Phonological patterns in the Englishes of Singapore and Hong Kong. World Englishes, 27, 480–501. doi:10.1111/j.1467-971X.2008.00580.x

Setter, J., Wong, C.S.P., & Chan, B.H.S. (2010). Hong Kong English. Edinburgh:Edinburgh University Press.

Some features are retrieved from :http://lc.ust.hk/~sac/advice/english/pronunciation/P7.htm