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Table 12. Instances of /h/ as [x] in the interviews. The affected sounds are bold

Table 12 Instances of /h/ as [x] in the interviews. The affected sounds are bold

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Table 1. Age and home province of subjects The pronunciation of English by speakers from China 177
Table 1. Age and home province of subjects The pronunciation of English by speakers from China 177
Table 2. Occurrence of extra vowel (schwa) at the end of and in the NWS passage vowel (an epenthetic vowel), usually a schwa, after a final plosive and before the next word, so typically and becomes [anda], an observation shared by Ho (2003). This presumably arises because Standard Chinese does not al- low final plosives (Duanmu 2000), though some Chinese languages, such as Cantonese, do allow unreleased final voiceless plosives (Zee 1999). It seems that the speakers investigated here are so concerned about dropping sounds that, in order to ensure they retain the final consonant, they sometimes add a short vowel after it. Apparently they are not aware that omission of a final /d/ in words such as and is in fact often quite acceptable in other varieties of English. For example, in all of the published transcriptions of the NWS passage for British English (Roach 2004; Watt and Allen 2003) and Ameri- can English (Ladefoged 1999; Hillenbrand 2003) no /d/ is shown for the first instance of and.
Table 2. Occurrence of extra vowel (schwa) at the end of and in the NWS passage vowel (an epenthetic vowel), usually a schwa, after a final plosive and before the next word, so typically and becomes [anda], an observation shared by Ho (2003). This presumably arises because Standard Chinese does not al- low final plosives (Duanmu 2000), though some Chinese languages, such as Cantonese, do allow unreleased final voiceless plosives (Zee 1999). It seems that the speakers investigated here are so concerned about dropping sounds that, in order to ensure they retain the final consonant, they sometimes add a short vowel after it. Apparently they are not aware that omission of a final /d/ in words such as and is in fact often quite acceptable in other varieties of English. For example, in all of the published transcriptions of the NWS passage for British English (Roach 2004; Watt and Allen 2003) and Ameri- can English (Ladefoged 1999; Hillenbrand 2003) no /d/ is shown for the first instance of and.
Table 3. Occurrence of extra vowel (schwa) at the end of Wind in the NWS passage I OIE NI IIE I IIIS I I IEEE EE Even when the first word does not end with a consonant cluster, an added vowel may occur, especially when the next word begins with a consonant as in agreed that (6 out of 13 instances), and at last (5 out of 13). However, none of the speakers adds a schwa at the end of the sentence-final attempt, even though all but one of them produces a clear /t/ at the end of this word. It seems, then, that the addition of a schwa at the end of a word is a linking phenomenon. If words are often learned in isolation in China, by rote memorization and recita- tion of word-lists, this might explain why an extra vowel is avoided when the word is at the end of a sentence so there is nothing following it but not when it occurs in the middle of a sentence.
Table 3. Occurrence of extra vowel (schwa) at the end of Wind in the NWS passage I OIE NI IIE I IIIS I I IEEE EE Even when the first word does not end with a consonant cluster, an added vowel may occur, especially when the next word begins with a consonant as in agreed that (6 out of 13 instances), and at last (5 out of 13). However, none of the speakers adds a schwa at the end of the sentence-final attempt, even though all but one of them produces a clear /t/ at the end of this word. It seems, then, that the addition of a schwa at the end of a word is a linking phenomenon. If words are often learned in isolation in China, by rote memorization and recita- tion of word-lists, this might explain why an extra vowel is avoided when the word is at the end of a sentence so there is nothing following it but not when it occurs in the middle of a sentence.
Table 4. Instances of extra vowel (schwa) in the interviews 0 occur when the word 1s not 1n sentence-final position. Of the instances shown in Table 4, only village (M1:07) and _ friend: M10:29) involve a sentence-final extra vowel. In fact, all the others involve in epenthetic vowel before another word beginning with a consonant. In the -ases where a vowel was added after a plosive, the overwhelming majority oc- curred after alveolar plosives, the only exceptions being crop (M1:100) and like M5:110, M6:116). However, we should note that alveolar plosives are rather nore common than either bilabial or velar plosives, so the propensity for an »penthetic vowel to occur after alveolar plosives may just reflect the greater requency of these sounds.
Table 4. Instances of extra vowel (schwa) in the interviews 0 occur when the word 1s not 1n sentence-final position. Of the instances shown in Table 4, only village (M1:07) and _ friend: M10:29) involve a sentence-final extra vowel. In fact, all the others involve in epenthetic vowel before another word beginning with a consonant. In the -ases where a vowel was added after a plosive, the overwhelming majority oc- curred after alveolar plosives, the only exceptions being crop (M1:100) and like M5:110, M6:116). However, we should note that alveolar plosives are rather nore common than either bilabial or velar plosives, so the propensity for an »penthetic vowel to occur after alveolar plosives may just reflect the greater requency of these sounds.
Table 6. Instances of heavy nasalization and complete absence of the /n/ in Sun from the NWS passage
Table 6. Instances of heavy nasalization and complete absence of the /n/ in Sun from the NWS passage
Table 8. Realization of the consonant at the end of North in the NWS passage
Table 8. Realization of the consonant at the end of North in the NWS passage
Table 9. Realization of /8/ in syllable-initial position in the interviews
Table 9. Realization of /8/ in syllable-initial position in the interviews
Table 10. Realization of /d/ at the start of function words in the NWS passage
Table 10. Realization of /d/ at the start of function words in the NWS passage
Table 11. Realization of medial /6/ in the interviews The pronunciation of English by speakers from China 189
Table 11. Realization of medial /6/ in the interviews The pronunciation of English by speakers from China 189
Table 13. Instances of vocalized dark /l/ in the interviews
Table 13. Instances of vocalized dark /l/ in the interviews
Table 14. Instances of [j] before in in the interviews 4.12 Stressed final pronouns The tendency to place stress on function words and also on the final word ot an utterance has been reported for Singapore English (Deterding 1994; Goh 2005), and Levis (2005) has shown that him in around him from the NWS passage tends to have substantially greater prominence in Singapore English than American English. It has been shown that a tendency to stress pronouns. especially when they occur in final position, is a common feature of the Eng- lish Lingua Franca that seems to be emerging throughout the ASEAN region (Deterding and Kirkpatrick 2005). TAT han readine tha NWT naceags thavenhiacte fenm China :cimilaorl<:tand -teo
Table 14. Instances of [j] before in in the interviews 4.12 Stressed final pronouns The tendency to place stress on function words and also on the final word ot an utterance has been reported for Singapore English (Deterding 1994; Goh 2005), and Levis (2005) has shown that him in around him from the NWS passage tends to have substantially greater prominence in Singapore English than American English. It has been shown that a tendency to stress pronouns. especially when they occur in final position, is a common feature of the Eng- lish Lingua Franca that seems to be emerging throughout the ASEAN region (Deterding and Kirkpatrick 2005). TAT han readine tha NWT naceags thavenhiacte fenm China :cimilaorl<:tand -teo
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