ABSTRACT

Amongst the variety of /r/ allophones is a labialised variant commonly described as the labiodental approximant [ʋ]. This seems, in recent times, to have become quite a common variant for young British English speech and is ‘established as an acceptable feature of mature speech in non-standard accents in the south-east of England’. Deterding and Kwek have also reported the existence of the labiodental approximant [ʋ] in the speech of some young speakers of Singapore English, presenting preliminary impressionistic findings of its existence and attitudes of Singaporeans towards its use. This article further substantiates these previous claims by providing acoustic evidence that the labiodental approximant [ʋ] is indeed present in Singapore English and that it can be differentiated from the more common post-alveolar approximant [ɹ] by comparing the nadir values of their third formants as well as the calculations of third formant rises towards the onset of following vowels. The article also provides further empirical evidence of the phonological environments that condition the realisation of this variant and also of its users. At its core, this article sets the foundations for further phonetic and phonological studies of /r/ variants in Singapore English.

摘要

在各种 / r / 异位音中，有一个唇形变体，通常被描述为唇齿近音 [ʋ]。最近，这似乎已成为年轻的英国英语演讲的一种相当普遍的变体，并且“被确立为英格兰东南部非标准口音的成熟演讲的可接受特征”。Deterding 和 Kwek 还报道了一些讲新加坡英语的年轻人的演讲中存在唇齿近端 [ʋ]，展示了其存在的初步印象派发现以及新加坡人对其使用的态度。这篇文章通过提供声学证据进一步证实了这些先前的说法，即唇齿近似词 [ʋ] 确实存在于新加坡英语中，并且可以通过比较它们的最低点值将其与更常见的牙槽后近似词 [ɹ] 区分开来第三共振峰以及第三共振峰的计算随着以下元音的开始而上升。该文章还提供了语音环境的进一步经验证据，这些语音环境决定了该变体及其用户的实现。本文的核心是为进一步研究新加坡英语中的 / r / 变体的语音和音位学奠定基础。该文章还提供了语音环境的进一步经验证据，这些语音环境决定了该变体及其用户的实现。本文的核心是为进一步研究新加坡英语中的 / r / 变体的语音和音位学奠定基础。该文章还提供了语音环境的进一步经验证据，这些语音环境决定了该变体及其用户的实现。本文的核心是为进一步研究新加坡英语中的 / r / 变体的语音和音位学奠定基础。