Acquisition of Voice Onset Time for Voiced Plosives of English by Adult Learners of Balochistan

Syed, Nasir Abbas; Aldaihani, Sultan Melfi; Bibi, Shah

doi:10.5539/ijel.v13n2p21

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…The results of this study show that unlike L1-Saraiki speakers, L1-Pashto speakers of PakE do not produce coronal stops in two different contexts with significantly different VOT ranges. The findings of the study (Syed, 2013b) are different from those with L1-Saraiki speakers of PakE.…”

Section: Previous Studiescontrasting

confidence: 94%

“…As already known in the literature, the place of articulation of plosives has a strong effect on VOT ranges of stops (Cho & Ladefoged, 1999;Lisker & Abramson, 1967;Nasukawa, 2010). In this study, we reproduce the results of previous experiments (Syed, 2013a(Syed, , 2013b(Syed, , 2015Syed & Saleem, 2019) and compare those with the findings of two current experiments to determine the VOT ranges of PakE plosives in two different contexts. We also anticipate the implications of the findings for future changes expected to occur in PakE.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

“…The above-quoted results show that Saraiki speakers of PakE produce English coronal stops in word-initial st -clusters with a VOT which is approximately 6-7 ms longer than that in other contexts. However, the same trend is not seen in the PakE speech of those Pakistanis who speak Pashto as their mother tongue (Syed, 2013b). The current study aims to acoustically analyze English coronal stops in the speech of those Pakistanis who speak Balochi and Sindhi as mother tongues to further confirm this trend in PakE.…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…The VOT of PakE plosives produced by speakers of various social and linguistic backgrounds has been studied by the lead author and colleagues over the previous decade. In an experiment, Syed (2013a) recorded a list of English words produced by 34 males studying MA English in Pakistan. The word list also included teeth and steal .…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The experiment by Syed (2013a) was repeated in another study (Syed, 2013b) with 12 native speakers of Pashto who were studying at the University of Essex in England. They had learnt PakE in Pakistan and had come to England in pursuit of postgraduate degrees.…”

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The emergence of a new phonological feature in Pakistan English

Syed¹,

Bibi²

2021

English Today

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English is used as a lingua franca in most parts of the world (Ozaki, 2011). However, problems and issues related to learning English are country specific (Nagamine, 2011), because most of the difficulties in foreign language learning arise from L1 interference (Flege, 1995). Since this study focuses on acoustic analysis of a phonological feature of Pakistan English (PakE), we outline the historical background of the issue very briefly. Pakistan is a linguistically rich country. More than 70 languages are spoken in Pakistan (Rahman, 1996). Saraiki, Balochi, Sindhi, Punjabi and Pashto are the major indigenous languages of the country. More than 90% of the total population speaks these languages. Pakistan came into being in 1947. It inherited English as a language of education, law, the judiciary and media from the British colonial masters. The British rulers also used the English language in India for official correspondence. Therefore, English became a very effective tool and symbol of power in the subcontinent. As a result, people of the subcontinent feel pride in learning English. Although the colonial period has ended and the English rulers have departed to their homeland, English still remains the language of ruling elite in Pakistan and India.

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Section: Previous Studiescontrasting

confidence: 94%

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The emergence of a new phonological feature in Pakistan English

Syed¹,

Bibi²

2021

English Today

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A Contrastive Study of The Effect of Initial /s/ on the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of Following Stops in English, Kurdish and Kurdish EFL Learners

Naser,

Saaed

2023

JLS

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When an initial /s/ precedes a voiceless stop in English, the aspiration is lost, and the voice onset time (VOT) is significantly shortened. This causes an allophonic variation of English stops based on context. This paper intends to comparatively investigate this phenomenon in English, Kurdish and Kurdish EFL learners from two proficiency levels. (40) participants which are divided among four groups (Kurdish, English, learners G1 and learners G2) are asked to read lists of words including voiceless stops preceded by /s/, constructed in English and Kurdish. Each stop in the list has two examples followed by a high and a low vowel. All the participants are asked to repeat each word three times to provide three tokens. These productions are recorded and VOT values are acoustically measured. Results are then statistically analyzed to check the significance of variable interactions. Results have shown that Kurdish voiceless stops preceded by /s/ are more aspirated than those of English in similar contexts and thus produced with longer VOT values. This indicates that Kurdish learners need to modify their voiceless stop production when speaking English. Results also show that advanced Kurdish learners have improved at pronouncing the aspirated English stop variety, but they still produce it with a noticeably extended VOT.

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Context-Specific Variance in PakE Coronal Stop: An Investigative Study of Pakistani English Speakers

Syed,

Bibi,

Shafi

2024

LLR

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The current study shows a new allophonic split in Pakistani English, challenging the widely accepted assumption that Pakistani English speakers produce /t/ as a retroflex [ʈ], claiming instead that they produce alveolar /t/ in [st] cluster. Speech sound utterances of 15 undergrad PakE students were recorded to test this hypothesis. The participants involved in the experiments had spent more than ten years mastering PakE. From the utterances of participants, VOT of coronal stops and F3 of the following vowels were obtained. The findings showed that PakE speakers produced English /t/ with a roughly 8–10 ms longer VOT in the words beginning with ‘st’ cluster. A significant F3 raising was also seen in the vowels after the coronal stops in ‘st’ clusters on word-initial margins. F3 raising is an indicator of the absence of retroflex gesture from the coronal stops. Based on these results, it is argued that a new allophonic split has emerged in the PakE, that is, it is produced as alveolar [t] in word-initial /st/ clusters but a retroflex [ʈ] elsewhere.

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Acquisition of Voice Onset Time for Voiced Plosives of English by Adult Learners of Balochistan

Cited by 4 publications

References 22 publications

The emergence of a new phonological feature in Pakistan English

The emergence of a new phonological feature in Pakistan English

A Contrastive Study of The Effect of Initial /s/ on the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of Following Stops in English, Kurdish and Kurdish EFL Learners

Context-Specific Variance in PakE Coronal Stop: An Investigative Study of Pakistani English Speakers

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