Article published In:
English World-WideVol. 26:2 (2005) ► pp.179–197
Emergent patterns in the vowels of Singapore English
In the past, the vowels of Singapore English (SgE) have often been described with reference to British English (BrE). However, certain idiosyncratic patterns are now emerging, and these often cannot be predicted by referring to any other varieties of English. The vowels in words such as egg, beg, poor, pure, won, one and the first syllable of absorb and abroad are investigated from the data of 38 speakers, and it is shown that a new standard of SgE pronunciation is emerging for the great majority of speakers.
Keywords: English, Singapore English, vowels, vowel quality
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