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Rhoticity in Singapore English

Variation in authentic speech

ORCiD logo with link | Ludwig Maximilian University Munich
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Abstract
This paper examines the variation in rhoticity in both casual and careful speech of Singaporeans, who are representative of the general population of educated Singapore English (SgE) speakers. This study expands the scope of previous research on rhoticity in SgE, e.g. Tan, Chor Hiang and Anthea Fraser Gupta. 1992. “Post-Vocalic /r/ in Singapore English”. York Papers in Linguistics 161: 139–152.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and Tan, Ying Ying. 2012. “To r or not to r: Social Correlates of /ɹ/ in Singapore English”. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2181: 1–24. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, by analysing both language-external and language-internal factors. While earlier studies primarily explored social correlates such as age, gender, ethnicity, and educational level, this research addresses a critical gap by examining phonological environments that condition /r/ realisation. Speech data were drawn from two distinct registers — read-aloud speeches and informal conversations — produced by SgE speakers of varying first language (L1) backgrounds. Statistical modelling identified three significant predictors of /r/ realisation: phonological context, preceding vowel, and dominant language. The findings underscore the unique status of the realised /r/ in SgE and the importance of both stylistic and phonological considerations in its distribution.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Variation in language
    • 2.1Variation in rhoticity
    • 2.2Attention-to-speech model
    • 2.3Three waves of variation
  • 3.Singapore English
    • 3.1Historical background of Singapore
    • 3.2Previous studies on rhoticity in Singapore English
  • 4.Data and Methodology
    • 4.1Data
      • 4.1.1Careful speech data
      • 4.1.2Casual speech data
    • 4.2Coding and analysis of /r/
      • 4.2.1Language-internal variable groups
      • 4.2.2Language-external variable groups
      • 4.2.3Statistical analyses
  • 5.Results and discussion
    • 5.1Overview of the full sample
    • 5.2Language-internal variables
      • 5.2.1Phonological context
      • 5.2.2Preceding vowel
      • 5.2.3Word type
      • 5.2.4Syllabic stress
    • 5.3Language-external variables
      • 5.3.1Dominant language
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
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