Speech Rhythm in World Englishes: The Case of Hong Kong

Abstract

This study investigated syllable duration as a measure of speech rhythm in the English spoken by Hong Kong Cantonese speakers. A computer dataset of Hong Kong English speech data amounting to 4,404 syllables was used. Measurements of syllable duration were taken, investigated statistically, and then compared with measurements of 1,847 syllables from an existing corpus of British English speakers. It was found that, although some similarities existed, the Hong Kong English speakers showed smaller differences in the relative syllable duration of tonic, stressed, unstressed, and weakened syllables than the British English speakers. This result is discussed with regard to potential intelligibility problems, features of possible language transfer from Cantonese to English with respect to speech rhythm, and implications for language teaching professionals. considering nonnative patterns of English speech, two paths are generally pursued: segmentai and suprasegmental. This article focuses on the suprasegmental features of language. Speech rhythm is a suprasegmental aspect of pronunciation, those aspects which describe and address features larger than individual speech sounds. English speech rhythm in older native varieties like British and American English is often described as stress timed, which, in basic terms, means that the start of each stressed syllable is said to be equidistant in time from the start of the next stressed syllable. This kind of rhythm is in contrast to syllable-timed languages (e.g., French, Spanish, Cantonese), in which the start of each syllable is said to be equidistant in time from the start of the next. Instrumental studies have, in fact, shown that very little difference can be found between languages thought of as typically stress timed and typically syllable timed (Roach, 1982; Dauer, 1983), and, in fact, Cauldwell (2002) describes English as irrhythmical Whether these descriptions stand up under instrumental scrutiny, they do seem to have some psychological importance for speakers of the languages so described. English spoken with a syllable-timed rhythm