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Part of
New Englishes, New Methods
Edited by Guyanne Wilson and Michael Westphal
[Varieties of English Around the World G68] 2023
► pp. 132–155

Analysing the speech rhythm of New Englishes

A guide to researchers and a case study on Pakistani, Philippine, Nigerian, and British English

ORCID logo | University of Hamburg
Most New Englishes are classified as syllable-timed and many L1 varieties of English as stress-timed. However, much empirical work on varieties of English and other languages has shown that a categorical distinction between discrete rhythm classes is not commensurate with the empirical evidence. Moreover, the comparability of published research is hampered by a lack of methodological standardization. This chapter provides a step-by-step guide for researchers and charts new avenues for future enquiries, illustrated with a case study comparing Pakistani, Nigerian, Philippine, and British English. Results indicate that the first three can be described as more syllable-timed than British English, but also that a binary classification of syllable- vs. stress-timed does not fully do justice to the results.
Keywords: Speech rhythm, prosody, phonetics, Pakistani English, Philippine English, Nigerian English, British English
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Measuring Speech Rhythm in New Englishes
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methodology: A step-by-step guide
    • 4.1Elicitation of speech data
      • Compare like with like
      • Speech styles
      • Empirical depth
      • Comparability across studies
    • 4.2Annotation and segmentation
    • 4.3Calculation of rhythm metrics
    • 4.4Statistical analysis
  • 5.Reporting results
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 14 April 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g68.07fuc
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