"What's them mutter with vowels": Exploring Philippine English intelligibility

Cheene M. Dino

College

Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC College of Education

Department/Unit

Dept of English and Applied Linguistics

Document Type

Archival Material/Manuscript

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

Many might frown upon the idea of a prescriptive pronunciation because it seems to gear towards overdependence to the American way. However, pronunciation is still one among the (many) factors to consider when a speaker wants to be intelligible. This study is anchored to the notion that a phonetic criterion is not a big deal unless it affects intelligibility. Thus, to test intelligibility, five participants were asked to deliver a series of 10 randomly arranged sentences. The sentences contain critical vowels with which no close-sounding vowels like /i/ and /l/ were placed close to each other. The arrangement was observed in order to detect whether the way Filipino speakers produce the sound affect intelligibility. Three rater – one is a Filipino, the other form the outer circle, and another from the expanding circle – were asked to assess intelligibility of sentences that contain some critical vowels for Filipino speakers. These critical vowels affect meaning when produced differently; thus, intelligibility was tested depending on how many sentences were correctly perceived by the raters. Findings aim to provide insights and implications to second language teachers in the light of world Englishes.

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Disciplines

Other English Language and Literature

Note

Presented at the 10th International Congress on English Grammar (ICEG2013), held at De la Salle University-Manila and Century park Hotel on January 17-19, 2013

Keywords

English language—Dialects—Philippines—Mutual intelligibility; English language—Pronunciation by foreign speakers

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