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 /[ɪ̈]/ or pronounced as /[ə]/. The vowel is characteristically back in the General and Broad varieties of SAE. The tendency to monophthongise pronounced as //ɐʊ// 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// as well as cot pronounced as //kɑt// 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
							Back

Close		pronounced as /link/		pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Close-mid	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/					pronounced as /link/
Open-mid	pronounced as /link/			pronounced as /link/
Open				pronounced as /link/			pronounced as /link/	pronounced as /link/
Diphthongs	pronounced as /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ ɐʊ œʊ iə ʉə/

The original short front vowels, and underwent a vowel shift similar to that found in New Zealand English, though not as extreme:
- 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/.
- As indicated in the transcription, the vowel pronounced as //ɨ// has a schwa-like quality even in stressed positions, except when in contact with velars and palatals, after pronounced as //h// as well as in the word-initial position, where the conservative pronounced as /link/ quality (further fronted to pronounced as /link/ in Broad) is retained. Due to weak vowel merger, neither Lenin and Lennon nor except and accept are distinct in SAE: pronounced as //ˈlenɨn, ɨkˈsept//. The quality of the merged vowel is typically pronounced as /link/ (pronounced as /link/ in some Broad varieties), even in unstressed closed syllables. This means that all three vowels of limited pronounced as //ˈlɨmɨtɨd// are phonetically the same: pronounced as /[ˈlɨ̞mɨ̞tɨ̞d ~ ˈləmətəd]/. These variants are covered by the symbol (IPA|ɨ) (without the lowering diacritic) in phonetic transcription. In the word-final position, the vowel is mid pronounced as /link/ in all varieties, with some lowering to pronounced as /link/ or even pronounced as /link/ being possible in the Cultivated variety. These allophones are written with (IPA|ə) in phonetic transcription, and the same symbol is used for word-initial and postvocalic instances of word-internal (pronounced as /[əkˈsept]/, etc.). As far as the phonemic analysis is concerned, the stressed central has been variously analysed as an allophone of, an allophone of (making it a stressable vowel), an allophone of a merged / vowel (which is the analysis adopted in this article) or a phoneme of its own that is separate from both and the front variety of .
  - In the Cultivated variety, Lenin pronounced as //ˈlenɪn// and except pronounced as //ɪkˈsept// on the one hand and Lennon pronounced as //ˈlenɨn// and accept pronounced as //ɨkˈsept// on the other may be distinct, as in RP. In addition, stressed instances of are consistently front pronounced as /link/ (as in RP), without any centralisation, whereas the schwa is consistently mid, so that the unstressed vowels of Lenin and Lennon contrast not only by backness but also by height: pronounced as /[ˈlenɪn, ˈlenən]/. The pronounced as /link/ quality occurs also in happy pronounced as //ˈhɛpɪ// and immediately pronounced as //ɪˈmiːdɪɨtlɪ// (cf. General pronounced as //ˈhɛpiː, ɨˈmiːdiːɨtliː//). For this reason, this variety is analysed as containing an extra pronounced as //ɪ// phoneme.
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 //ɵ// 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 //ɐʊ// 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 ˈɑnsloːt]/ for the turtle onslaught pronounced as /[ðə ˈtøːtl̩ ˈɑnsloːt]/. 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
				Example words
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 /iː/	pronounced as /i/		pronounced as /iː/		pronounced as /ɪ/	pronounced as /iː/	pronounced as /iː/	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 /ɪ/	pronounced as /ə/	pronounced as /ɪ/	kit
	pronounced as /ə/	pronounced as /ɪ/ / pronounced as /ə/ / pronounced as /ɘ/	pronounced as /ɪ̈/	pronounced as /ɪ̈/ / pronounced as /ə/	pronounced as /ə/	pronounced as /ɪ/			bit
		pronounced as /ə/ / pronounced as /ɘ/	pronounced as /ə/	pronounced as /ə/		pronounced as /ə/			rabbit
								pronounced as /ə/	accept, abbot
							pronounced as /a/	pronounced as /ə/	sofa, better
pronounced as /ɵ/	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 /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 /ɜ/	pronounced as /ʌ/	pronounced as /ɜ/	pronounced as /ɜ/ / pronounced as /ɐ/	pronounced as /ɐ/	pronounced as /ʌ/	pronounced as /a/	pronounced as /a/	pronounced as /ʌ/	strut, unknown
pronounced as /a/			pronounced as /ɐ/	pronounced as /ä/					pap
pronounced as /ɑ/	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 /ɐʊ/	pronounced as /aʊ/	pronounced as /ɑ̈ː/	pronounced as /ɑ̈ɤ/		pronounced as /ɑw/	pronounced as /æɔ/	pronounced as /æʊ/	pronounced as /aʊ/	mouth
pronounced as /iə/	pronounced as /ɪə/		pronounced as /ɪə/		pronounced as /iə/	pronounced as /ɪə/	pronounced as /iə/	pronounced as /ɪə/	near
pronounced as /ʉə/	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

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 //ˈwɑntɨŋ// can be pronounced pronounced as /[ˈwɑntsɪŋ]/.
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 /[mɨf]/).
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//.
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 /[lɵk]/ 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 ɜp]/, which in General and Broad is pronounced pronounced as /[koːɫ ɜp]/).
- 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]/, so that button pronounced as //ˈbɜtɨn// and middle pronounced as //ˈmɨdɨl// are phonetically pronounced as /[ˈbɜtɨn]/ and pronounced as /[ˈmɨdɯl]/ (compare General pronounced as /[ˈbɜtn̩]/ 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 //ˈbɜtˌɨn//, 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 ɨ 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 ɨn ˈoːdɨ// can be subject to the following processes:
- Vowel deletion: pronounced as /[ˈloːn ˈoːdə]/;
- Adding a semivowel corresponding to the preceding vowel: pronounced as /[ˈloːwɨn 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]/.

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.