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A cross-generational inter-ethnic study of vowels and rhythmic patterning of speakers of Singapore English
Author
Ong, Samuel Junjie
Supervisor
Low, Ee Ling
Abstract
Singapore English has been widely studied by both local and international scholars. While most of these studies focused on the pronunciation of ethnically Chinese speakers, few have examined pronunciation features across the different ethnic groups. Given the rich linguistic landscape in Singapore, it would be interesting to investigate whether similarities or differences exist in pronunciation features of the English spoken by different ethnic groups across different generations. To date, there is only one published cross-generational work on Singapore English. The present study aims to fill this research gap by examining the acoustic features of vowels and rhythmic patterning inter-ethnically between Chinese and Malay speakers and cross generationally. The acoustic investigation showed that differences and similarities are present in the pronunciation of the different groups of speakers. Pronunciation is most different between Chinese and Malay speakers in the older generation compared to speakers of the younger generation. The thesis concludes with directions for future studies in the domain inter-ethnic and cross-generational studies.
Date Issued
2018
Call Number
PE3502.S5 Ong