Innovation in second language phonology

The paper investigates a number of phonological features in Hong Kong English which appear to be ‘innovative’ in the sense that they are attributable to neither the learner’s first language (Cantonese) nor the target language (English), nor to current second-language acquisition theories. These include: (1) Reduction of diphthongs to monophthongs when followed by stop consonants (as in take, joke and town); (2) raising of [ai] in certain environments (as in mice and tight); (3) ‘splitting’ of one phonemic distinction (/v/) into two (/f/ and /w/, as in even [f] and advice [w]); (4) [l]~[n] alternation in syllable-initial position; (5) elision of the labial glide [w] in consonant clusters before rounded vowels (as in quote and quarter).