White South African English phonology

The vocalic phonemes of South African English are as follows: == KIT, COMMA, STRUT and PAP ==

RP features three phonemes , and which contrast in unstressed closed syllables, so that Lenin and except are distinct from Lennon and accept , whereas rabbit does not rhyme with abbot and cucumber has a different second vowel from industry . In stressed closed syllables, only and appear. This is also true of Cultivated SAE, but the contrast between and is not always maintained. In General and Broad, it is invariably lost, yielding a high schwa (hereafter transcribed without the diacritic). This renders Lenin homophonous with Lennon as , except with accept as and makes rabbit rhyme with abbot . This quality is also used in most cases in stressed syllables (so in all three syllables of limited ), except when in contact with velars and palatals, after as well as in the stressed word-initial position, where the conservative quality (further fronted to in Broad) is retained. In Broad, may be lowered to . In General, it can happen only in unstressed syllables, so that scented and centered can both be pronounced , rather than . This phonetic detail is not reflected in transcriptions in this article, except in the word-final position where the vowel is transcribed with . The vowel is truly contrastive only in the Conservative variety, where there is a clear distinction between and . Because of the merger of those two in General and Broad, may be considered a mere stressed mid schwa , which, according to Lass, is a common and perhaps pivotal value in General SAE spoken in Cape Town. He transcribes this vowel with , which is defined as an additional mid central vowel on the 1989 IPA vowel chart. In this article, the symbol is used instead. is a highly variable vowel, which varies from a centralized (mostly in word-list style) to an open central . The vowel , a non-native open central vowel that appears mostly in loanwords from Afrikaans overlaps with the openest allophones of . For speakers that have as a norm for , is not a distinct class. == Other vowels ==

• The bracketed and appear only in loanwords (such as pap 'weak' or gogga 'insect'), mainly from Afrikaans (in IPA transcriptions of Afrikaans, the latter is often transcribed with despite its height). In addition, Afrikaans and (traditionally transcribed with and ) are typically nativized as and , that is (as in steen 'chenin blanc') and (as in kloof 'deep glen'). As a result, and 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 occurs). • The original short front vowels , and underwent a vowel shift similar to that found in New Zealand English: • The vowel varies from to 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 , the same as in Modern RP. Before , the fully open 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 , often with slight diphthongisation (). Broad can be as close as mid , encroaching on the Cultivated realisation of . • is close-mid or higher in General, often with centralisation (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 is similar enough to 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 (within the RP norm). In General and Broad, the vowel can be lowered to or even when it occurs before . • is described above. • The vowel is a long close front monophthong , either close to cardinal or slightly mid-centralised. It does not have a tendency to diphthongise, which distinguishes SAE from Australian and New Zealand English. • The vowel is typically a weakly rounded retracted central vowel , somewhat more central than the traditional RP value. Younger speakers of the General variety (especially females) often use a fully central . This vowel is effectively the rounded counterpart of . Backer and sometimes more rounded variants () occur before . Broad SAE can feature a more rounded vowel, but that is more common in Afrikaans English. • The vowel is usually central or somewhat fronter in White varieties, though in the Cultivated variety, it is closer to (typically not fully back, thus ), which is also the normal realisation before in other varieties. Younger (particularly female) speakers of the General variety use an even more front vowel , so that food may be distinguished from feed only by rounding. The vowel is often a monophthong, but there is some tendency to diphthongise it before sonorants (as in wounded and school ). • In the General variety, , and are commonly monophthongized to , (phonetically between and a monophthongal ) and . Among those, the monophthongal variant of is the most common. The last monophthong contrasts with the close-mid , 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 for the turtle onslaught . On the other hand, does not monophthongize. In addition, is almost monophthongal , resulting in a near-merger of with , which is normally a close-mid monophthong . 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. ==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 before a stressed syllable, unless they are followed by an within the same syllable. • Speakers of the General variety can strongly affricate the syllable-final to , so that wanting can be pronounced . • are normally alveolar. In the Broad variety, they tend to be dental . This pronunciation also occurs in older speakers of the Jewish subvariety of General SAE. Fricatives and affricates • occurs only in words borrowed from Afrikaans and Khoisan languages, such as gogga 'insect'. Many speakers realise as uvular , a sound which is more common in Afrikaans. • may be realised as 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 ). • In the Indian variety, the labiodental fricatives are realised without audible friction, i.e. as approximants . • In General and Cultivated varieties, intervocalic may be voiced, so that ahead can be pronounced . • There is not a full agreement about the voicing of in Broad varieties: • states that: • Voiced is the normal realisation of 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 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 . That creates potentially minimal tonal pairs like oh (neutral or high falling , phonemically ) vs. hoe (low or low rising , phonemically ). In General, these are normally pronounced and , without any tonal difference. • states that in Broad varieties close to Afrikaans English, is voiced 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 from , so that which is not homophonous with witch . In General and Broad, those are homophonous as . • has two allophones: • Clear (neutral or somewhat palatalised) in syllable-initial and intervocalic positions (as in look and polar ). • In Cultivated variety, clear is often also used word-finally when another word begins with a vowel (as in call up , which in General and Broad is pronounced ). • Velarised (or uvularised ) in pre-consonantal and word-final positions. • One source states that the dark has a "hollow pharyngealised" quality , rather than velarised or uvularised. • In the Broad variety, the sequences and tend not to form syllabic and where they correspond to in RP, so that button and middle are phonetically and (compare General and ). John Wells analyses the broad pronunciation of these words as having a secondarily stressed schwa in the last syllable: , . • In Cultivated and General varieties, is an approximant, usually postalveolar or (less commonly) retroflex. In emphatic speech, Cultivated speakers may realise as a (often long) trill . Older speakers of the Cultivated variety may realise intervocalic as a tap (as in very ), a feature which is becoming increasingly rare. • Broad SAE realises as a tap , sometimes even as a trill - a pronunciation which is at times stigmatised as a marker of this variety. The trill is more commonly considered a feature of the second language Afrikaans English variety. • Another possible realisation of is uvular trill , 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 ). It appears that postvocalic is entering the speech of younger people under the influence of American English. • Linking (as in for a while ) is used only by some speakers: . • There is not a full agreement about intrusive (as in law and order) in South African English: • states that it is rare, and some speakers with linking never use the intrusive . • states that it is absent from this variety. • In contexts where many British and Australian accents use the intrusive , speakers of South African English who do not use the intrusive create an intervocalic hiatus. In these varieties, phrases such as law and order can be subject to the following processes: • Vowel deletion: ; • Adding a semivowel corresponding to the preceding vowel: ; • Inserting a glottal stop: . This is typical of Broad varieties. • Before a high front vowel, undergoes fortition to in Broad and some of the General varieties, so that yeast can be pronounced . ==See also==