White South African English phonology explained
pronounced as /notice/
This article covers the phonological system of South African English (SAE) as spoken primarily by White South Africans. While there is some variation among speakers, SAE typically has a number of features in common with English as it is spoken in southern England (in places like London), such as non-rhoticity and the - split.
The two main phonological features that mark South African English as distinct are the behaviour of the vowels in and . The vowel tends to be "split" so that there is a clear allophonic variation between the front pronounced as /[ɪ]/ and central pronounced as /[ɨ̞]/ or pronounced as /[ə]/. The vowel is characteristically back in the General and Broad varieties of SAE. The tendency to monophthongise pronounced as //ɑʊ// and pronounced as //aɪ// to pronounced as /[ɐː]/ and pronounced as /[aː]/ respectively, are also typical features of General and Broad White South African English.
General South African English features phonemic vowel length (so that ferry pronounced as //ˈferiː// and fairy pronounced as //ˈfeːriː// and possibly cot pronounced as //kɒt// and cart pronounced as //kɑːt// differ only in length) as well as phonemic roundedness, so that fairy pronounced as //ˈfeːriː// is distinguished from furry pronounced as //ˈføːriː// by roundedness.
Features involving consonants include the tendency for pronounced as //tj// (as in tune) and pronounced as //dj// (as in dune) to be realised as pronounced as /[tʃ]/ and pronounced as /[dʒ]/, respectively (see Yod coalescence), and pronounced as //h// has a strong tendency to be voiced initially.
Vowels
The vocalic phonemes of South African English are as follows:
| Front | Central | Back |
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| Close | (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | | |
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| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | | | (pronounced as /link/), (pronounced as /link/) | pronounced as /link/ |
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| Open | pronounced as /link/ | | | (pronounced as /link/) | | | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ |
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| Diphthongs | pronounced as /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ ɑʊ œʊ ɪə ʊə/ | |
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KIT, COMMA, STRUT and PAP
RP features three phonemes pronounced as //ɪ//, pronounced as //ə// and pronounced as //ʌ// which contrast in unstressed closed syllables, so that Lenin pronounced as //ˈlenɪn// and except pronounced as //ɪkˈsept// are distinct from Lennon pronounced as //ˈlenən// and accept pronounced as //əkˈsept//, whereas rabbit pronounced as //ˈræbɪt// does not rhyme with abbot pronounced as //ˈæbət// and cucumber pronounced as //ˈkjuːkʌmbə// has a different second vowel from industry pronounced as //ˈɪndəstri//. In stressed closed syllables, only pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ʌ// appear. This is also true of Cultivated SAE, but the contrast between pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ə// is not always maintained. In General and Broad, it is invariably lost, yielding a high schwa pronounced as /link/ (hereafter transcribed without the diacritic). This renders Lenin homophonous with Lennon as pronounced as //ˈlenɨn//, except with accept as pronounced as //ɨkˈsept// and makes rabbit pronounced as //ˈrɛbɨt// rhyme with abbot pronounced as //ˈɛbɨt//. This pronounced as /link/ quality is also used in most cases in stressed syllables (so in all three syllables of limited pronounced as /[ˈlɨmɨtɨd]/), except when in contact with velars and palatals, after pronounced as //h// as well as in the stressed word-initial position, where the conservative pronounced as /link/ quality (further fronted to pronounced as /link/ in Broad) is retained. In Broad, pronounced as /link/ may be lowered to pronounced as /link/. In General, it can happen only in unstressed syllables, so that scented and centered can both be pronounced pronounced as /[ˈsentəd]/, rather than pronounced as /[ˈsentɨd]/. This phonetic detail is not reflected in transcriptions in this article, except in the word-final position where the vowel is transcribed with (IPA|ə). The vowel is truly contrastive only in the Conservative variety, where there is a clear distinction between pronounced as //ɪ// and pronounced as //ə//. Because of the merger of those two in General and Broad, may be considered a mere stressed mid schwa pronounced as /link/, which, according to Lass, is a common and perhaps pivital value in General SAE spoken in Cape Town. He transcribes this vowel with (IPA|ɜ), which is defined as an additional mid central vowel on the 1989 IPA vowel chart. In this article, the symbol (IPA|ə) is used instead. is a highly variable vowel, which varies from a centralized pronounced as /link/ (mostly in word-list style) to an open central pronounced as /link/. The vowel pronounced as //a//, a non-native open central vowel that appears mostly in loanwords from Afrikaans overlaps with the openest allophones of . For speakers that have pronounced as /link/ as a norm for, is not a distinct class.
Other vowels
- The bracketed pronounced as //a// and pronounced as //o// appear only in loanwords (such as pap pronounced as //pap// 'weak' or gogga pronounced as //ˈxoxa// 'insect'), mainly from Afrikaans (in IPA transcriptions of Afrikaans, the latter is often transcribed with (IPA|ɔ) despite its height). In addition, Afrikaans pronounced as /[iə]/ and pronounced as /[uə]/ (traditionally transcribed with (IPA|eː) and (IPA|oː)) are typically nativized as and, that is pronounced as //ɪə// (as in steen pronounced as //stɪən// 'chenin blanc') and pronounced as //ʊə// (as in kloof pronounced as //klʊəf// 'deep glen'). As a result, pronounced as //ɪə// and pronounced as //ʊə// occur much more frequently in South African English than in other varieties. On the recording above, the first three vowels can be heard in many words (although no loanword with pronounced as //ʊə// occurs).
- The original short front vowels, and underwent a vowel shift similar to that found in New Zealand English:
- The vowel pronounced as //ɛ// varies from pronounced as /link/ to pronounced as /link/ in General and Cultivated SAE. However, the new prestige value in younger Johannesburg speakers of the General variety (particularly those who live in the wealthy northern suburbs) seems to be open front pronounced as /link/, the same as in Modern RP. Before pronounced as /link/, the fully open pronounced as /link/ is the norm in the General variety, whereas before voiced stops as well as bilabial and alveolar nasals the vowel tends to be centralised and lengthened to pronounced as /link/, often with slight diphthongisation (pronounced as /[æ̈ːə]/). Broad pronounced as //ɛ// can be as close as mid pronounced as /link/, encroaching on the Cultivated realisation of .
- pronounced as //e// is close-mid pronounced as /link/ or higher pronounced as /link/ in General, often with centralisation pronounced as /[{{IPA link|e|ë}} ~ {{IPA link|ɪ}}]/ (it is unclear whether the last allophone is distinct from the front allophone of in the General variety). Variants above the close-mid height are typical of female speech. General pronounced as //e// is similar enough to pronounced as //ɪ// in RP and similar accents as to cause perceptual problems for outsiders. Broad variants are very similar to the General ones, but in Cultivated the vowel can be as open as pronounced as /link/ (within the RP norm). In General and Broad, the vowel can be lowered to pronounced as /link/ or even pronounced as /link/ when it occurs before pronounced as /link/.
- is described above.
- The vowel pronounced as //iː// is a long close front monophthong pronounced as /link/, either close to cardinal pronounced as /link/ or slightly mid-centralised. It does not have a tendency to diphthongise, which distinguishes SAE from Australian and New Zealand English.
- The vowel pronounced as //ʊ// is typically a weakly rounded retracted central vowel pronounced as /link/, somewhat more central than the traditional RP value. Younger speakers of the General variety (especially females) often use a fully central pronounced as /link/. This vowel is effectively the rounded counterpart of . Backer and sometimes more rounded variants (pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ʊ}} ~ {{IPAplink|ʊ|ʊ̹}}]/) occur before pronounced as /link/. Broad SAE can feature a more rounded vowel, but that is more common in Afrikaans English.
- The vowel pronounced as //ʉː// is usually central pronounced as /link/ or somewhat fronter in White varieties, though in the Cultivated variety, it is closer to pronounced as /link/ (typically not fully back, thus pronounced as /link/), which is also the normal realisation before pronounced as /link/ in other varieties. Younger (particularly female) speakers of the General variety use an even more front vowel pronounced as /link/, so that food pronounced as /[fyːd]/ may be distinguished from feed pronounced as /[fiːd]/ only by rounding. The vowel is often a monophthong, but there is some tendency to diphthongise it before sonorants (as in wounded pronounced as /[ˈwʉundɨd]/ and school pronounced as /[skʉuɫ]/).
- In the General variety, pronounced as //aɪ//, pronounced as //ɑʊ// and pronounced as //œʊ// are commonly monophthongized to pronounced as /link/, pronounced as /link/ (phonetically between and a monophthongal) and pronounced as /link/. Among those, the monophthongal variant of is the most common. The last monophthong contrasts with the close-mid pronounced as /link/, which stands for . The monophthonging of can cause intelligibility problems for outsiders; Roger Lass says that he himself once misunderstood the phrase the total onslaught pronounced as /[ðə ˈtœːtl̩ ˈɒnsloːt]/ for the turtle onslaught pronounced as /[ðə ˈtøːtl̩ ˈɒnsloːt]/. On the other hand, does not monophthongize. In addition, pronounced as //eɪ// is almost monophthongal pronounced as /[ee̝]/, resulting in a near-merger of with, which is normally a close-mid monophthong pronounced as /link/.
Transcriptions
Sources differ in the way they transcribe South African English. The differences are listed below. The traditional phonemic orthography for the Received Pronunciation as well as the reformed phonemic orthographies for Australian and New Zealand English have been added for the sake of comparison.
South African English! rowspan="99" | | | | | Example words |
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| pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /iː/ | | pronounced as /i/ | pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /iː/ | fleece |
| pronounced as /i/ | | | pronounced as /ɪ/ | pronounced as /i/ | happy, video |
| pronounced as /ɨ/ | pronounced as /ɪ/ | pronounced as /ɪ/ / pronounced as /ə/ / pronounced as /ɘ/ | pronounced as /ɪ̈/ | pronounced as /ɪ/ | pronounced as /ɪ/ | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ɪ/ | kit |
| pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ɪ̈/ / pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ə/ | bit |
| pronounced as /ə/ / pronounced as /ɘ/ | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /ə/ | rabbit |
| pronounced as /ə/ | accept, abbot |
| pronounced as /ə/ | pronounced as /a/ | sofa, better |
| pronounced as /ʌ/ | pronounced as /ɜ/ | pronounced as /ɜ/ / pronounced as /ɐ/ | pronounced as /ɐ/ | pronounced as /ʌ/ | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /ʌ/ | strut, unknown |
| pronounced as /ʊ/ | pronounced as /ʊ/ | pronounced as /ʊ̈/ | pronounced as /ʊ̈/ | pronounced as /ʊ/ / pronounced as /ʊ̈/ | pronounced as /ʊ/ | pronounced as /ʊ/ | pronounced as /ʊ/ | pronounced as /ʊ/ | foot |
| pronounced as /ʉː/ | pronounced as /uː/ | pronounced as /ʉː/ | pronounced as /ʉː/ | | pronounced as /u/ | pronounced as /ʉː/ | pronounced as /ʉː/ | pronounced as /uː/ | goose |
| pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /ɛ/ / pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | pronounced as /e/ | dress |
| pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /eə/ | | pronounced as /eː/ | | pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /eː/ | pronounced as /eə/ | pronounced as /eə/ | square |
| pronounced as /øː/ | pronounced as /ɜː/ | | pronounced as /ø̈ː/ | | pronounced as /ɜ/ | pronounced as /ɜː/ | pronounced as /øː/ | pronounced as /ɜː/ | nurse |
| pronounced as /o/ | | | pronounced as /o/ | | | | | | gogga |
| pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /ɔː/ | pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /ɔː/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /ɔː/ | thought, north |
| pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /æ/ | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /æ̝/ | pronounced as /æ/ / pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /æ/ | pronounced as /ɛ/ | pronounced as /æ/ | trap |
| pronounced as /a/ | | | pronounced as /ɐ/ | pronounced as /ä/ | | | | | pap, gogga |
| pronounced as /ɒ/ | pronounced as /ɒ/ | pronounced as /ɒ̈/ | pronounced as /ɒ̝̈/ | pronounced as /ɒ/ | pronounced as /ɒ/ | pronounced as /ɔ/ | pronounced as /ɒ/ | pronounced as /ɒ/ | lot |
| pronounced as /ɑː/ | pronounced as /ɑː/ | pronounced as /ɑː/ / pronounced as /ɒː/ | pronounced as /ɑ̟ː/ | pronounced as /ɑ/ | pronounced as /ɑ/ | pronounced as /aː/ | pronounced as /aː/ | pronounced as /ɑː/ | palm, start |
| pronounced as /eɪ/ | pronounced as /əɪ/ | | pronounced as /eɪ/ | | pronounced as /əj/ | pronounced as /æɪ/ | pronounced as /æɪ/ | pronounced as /eɪ/ | face |
| pronounced as /aɪ/ | pronounced as /aɪ/ | pronounced as /ɐː/ | pronounced as /äɪ/ / pronounced as /äː/ | pronounced as /aɪ/ | pronounced as /aː/ | pronounced as /ɑɪ/ | pronounced as /aɪ/ | pronounced as /aɪ/ | price |
| pronounced as /ɔɪ/ | pronounced as /ɔɪ/ | | pronounced as /ɔɪ/ | | pronounced as /ɔj/ | pronounced as /oɪ/ | pronounced as /oɪ/ | pronounced as /ɔɪ/ | choice |
| pronounced as /œʊ/ | pronounced as /əʊ/ | | pronounced as /œ̈ɤ̈/ | | pronounced as /əw/ / pronounced as /ʌː/ | pronounced as /əʉ/ | pronounced as /aʉ/ | pronounced as /əʊ/ | goat |
| pronounced as /ɑʊ/ | pronounced as /aʊ/ | pronounced as /ɑ̈ː/ | pronounced as /ɑ̈ɤ/ | | pronounced as /ɑw/ | pronounced as /æɔ/ | pronounced as /æʊ/ | pronounced as /aʊ/ | mouth |
| pronounced as /ɪə/ | pronounced as /ɪə/ | | pronounced as /ɪə/ | | pronounced as /iə/ | pronounced as /ɪə/ | pronounced as /iə/ | pronounced as /ɪə/ | near |
| | | | | | | kreef |
| pronounced as /ʊə/ | pronounced as /ʊə/ | | pronounced as /ʊ̈ə/ | | pronounced as /ʊə/ | pronounced as /ʉːə/ | pronounced as /ʉə/ | pronounced as /ʊə/ | cure |
| | pronounced as /ʉː/ | fury |
| | pronounced as /oː/ | sure |
| | | | | | | oom | |
Consonants
Plosives
- In Broad White South African English, voiceless plosives tend to be unaspirated in all positions, which serves as a marker of this subvariety. This is usually thought to be an Afrikaans influence.
- General and Cultivated varieties aspirate pronounced as //p, t, k// before a stressed syllable, unless they are followed by an pronounced as //s// within the same syllable.
- Speakers of the General variety can strongly affricate the syllable-final pronounced as //t// to pronounced as /link/, so that wanting pronounced as //ˈwɒntɨŋ// can be pronounced pronounced as /[ˈwɒntsɪŋ]/.
- pronounced as //t, d// are normally alveolar. In the Broad variety, they tend to be dental pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|t̪}}, {{IPAplink|d̪}}]/. This pronunciation also occurs in older speakers of the Jewish subvariety of General SAE.
Fricatives and affricates
- pronounced as //x// occurs only in words borrowed from Afrikaans and Khoisan languages, such as gogga pronounced as //ˈxoxa// 'insect'. Many speakers realise pronounced as //x// as uvular pronounced as /link/, a sound which is more common in Afrikaans.
- pronounced as //θ// may be realised as pronounced as /link/ in Broad varieties (see Th-fronting), but it is more accurate to say that it is a feature of Afrikaans English. This is especially common word-finally (as in myth pronounced as /[məf]/).
- In the Indian variety, the labiodental fricatives pronounced as //f, v// are realised without audible friction, i.e. as approximants pronounced as /[{{IPAplink|ʋ̥}}, {{IPAplink|ʋ}}]/.
- In General and Cultivated varieties, intervocalic pronounced as //h// may be voiced, so that ahead can be pronounced pronounced as /[əˈɦed]/.
- There is not a full agreement about the voicing of pronounced as //h// in Broad varieties:
- states that:
- Voiced pronounced as /link/ is the normal realisation of pronounced as //h// in Broad varieties.
- It is often deleted, e.g. in word-initial stressed syllables (as in house), but at least as often, it is pronounced even if it seems deleted. The vowel that follows the pronounced as /[ɦ]/ allophone in the word-initial syllable often carries a low or low rising tone, which, in rapid speech, can be the only trace of the deleted pronounced as //h//. That creates potentially minimal tonal pairs like oh (neutral pronounced as /[ʌʊ˧]/ or high falling pronounced as /[ʌʊ˦˥˩]/, phonemically pronounced as //œʊ//) vs. hoe (low pronounced as /[ʌʊ˨]/ or low rising pronounced as /[ʌʊ˩˨]/, phonemically pronounced as //hœʊ//). In General, these are normally pronounced pronounced as /[œː]/ and pronounced as /[hœː]/, without any tonal difference.
- states that in Broad varieties close to Afrikaans English, pronounced as //h// is voiced pronounced as /link/ before a stressed vowel.
Sonorants
- General and Broad varieties have a wine–whine merger. However, some speakers of Cultivated SAE (particularly the elderly) still distinguish pronounced as //hw// from pronounced as //w//, so that which pronounced as //hwɪtʃ// is not homophonous with witch pronounced as //wɪtʃ//. In General and Broad, those are homophonous as pronounced as //wɨtʃ//.
- pronounced as //l// has two allophones:
- Clear (neutral or somewhat palatalised) pronounced as /link/ in syllable-initial and intervocalic positions (as in look pronounced as /[lʊk]/ and polar pronounced as /[ˈpœːlə]/).
- In Cultivated variety, clear pronounced as /link/ is often also used word-finally when another word begins with a vowel (as in call up pronounced as /[koːl ˈəp]/, which in General and Broad is pronounced pronounced as /[koːɫ ˈəp]/).
- Velarised pronounced as /link/ (or uvularised pronounced as /link/) in pre-consonantal and word-final positions.
- One source states that the dark pronounced as //l// has a "hollow pharyngealised" quality pronounced as /[lˤ]/, rather than velarised or uvularised.
- In the Broad variety, the sequences pronounced as //ɨn// and pronounced as //ɨl// tend not to form syllabic pronounced as /[n̩]/ and pronounced as /[l̩]/ where they correspond to pronounced as //ən, əl// in RP, so that button pronounced as //ˈbətɨn// and middle pronounced as //ˈmɨdɨl// are phonetically pronounced as /[ˈbɐtɨn]/ and pronounced as /[ˈmədɯl]/ (compare General pronounced as /[ˈbətn̩]/ and pronounced as /[ˈmɨdl̩]/). John Wells analyses the broad pronunciation of these words as having a secondarily stressed schwa in the last syllable: pronounced as //ˈbətˌɨn//, pronounced as //ˈmɨdˌɨl//.
- In Cultivated and General varieties, pronounced as //r// is an approximant, usually postalveolar or (less commonly) retroflex. In emphatic speech, Cultivated speakers may realise pronounced as //r// as a (often long) trill pronounced as /link/. Older speakers of the Cultivated variety may realise intervocalic pronounced as //r// as a tap pronounced as /link/ (as in very pronounced as /[ˈveɾɪ]/), a feature which is becoming increasingly rare.
- Broad SAE realises pronounced as //r// as a tap pronounced as /link/, sometimes even as a trill pronounced as /link/ - a pronunciation which is at times stigmatised as a marker of this variety. The trill pronounced as /link/ is more commonly considered a feature of the second language Afrikaans English variety.
- Another possible realisation of pronounced as //r// is uvular trill pronounced as /link/, which has been reported to occur in the Cape Flats dialect.
- South African English is non-rhotic, except for some Broad varieties spoken in the Cape Province (typically in -er suffixes, as in writer pronounced as /[ˈraɪtɚ]/). It appears that postvocalic pronounced as //r// is entering the speech of younger people under the influence of American English.
- Linking pronounced as //r// (as in for a while pronounced as //foː ə ˈwaɪl//) is used only by some speakers: pronounced as /[foːɹ ə ˈwaːl]/.
- There is not a full agreement about intrusive pronounced as //r// (as in law and order) in South African English:
- states that it is rare, and some speakers with linking pronounced as //r// never use the intrusive pronounced as //r//.
- states that it is absent from this variety.
- In contexts where many British and Australian accents use the intrusive pronounced as //r//, speakers of South African English who do not use the intrusive pronounced as //r// create an intervocalic hiatus. In these varieties, phrases such as law and order pronounced as //ˈloː ən ˈoːdə// can be subject to the following processes:
- Vowel deletion: pronounced as /[ˈloːn ˈoːdə]/;
- Adding a semivowel corresponding to the preceding vowel: pronounced as /[ˈloːwən ˈoːdə]/;
- Inserting a glottal stop: pronounced as /[ˈloːʔən ˈoːdə]/. This is typical of Broad varieties.
- Before a high front vowel, pronounced as //j// undergoes fortition to pronounced as /link/ in Broad and some of the General varieties, so that yeast can be pronounced pronounced as /[ɣiːst]/.
See also
Bibliography
- Bekker. Ian . The vowels of South African English. Ph.D.. north-West University, Potchefstroom. 2008.
- Book: Branford
, William
. 1994. 9: English in South Africa. Burchfield. Robert. The Cambridge History of the English Language. 5: English in Britain and Overseas: Origins and Development. Cambridge University Press. 0-521-26478-2. 430–496.
Further reading
- Da Silva. Arista B.. 2008. South African English: a sociolinguistic investigation of an emerging variety.. Ph.D. University of Johannesburg. 10539/4955.
- Book: De Klerk. Vivian. 1996. Focus on South Africa. John Benjamins Publishing. 90-272-4873-7.
- Book: Lanham
, Len W.
. 1967. The pronunciation of South African English. Cape Town. Balkema. 457559.
- Prinsloo. Claude Pierre. 2000. A comparative acoustic analysis of the long vowels and diphthongs of Afrikaans and South African English. M.Eng. University of Pretoria. Pretoria. PDF. https://web.archive.org/web/20211104140444/https://repository.up.ac.za/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2263/22950/00front.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. 4 November 2021. live.
