How and why are young Singaporeans sounding nonlocal in Singapore?

• Main Author: Ng, Sharon Yu Hui
• Other Authors: Tan Ying Ying
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138277
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Past research has proven there to be a distinctive Singaporean “way of speaking”, what is referred to as the Singaporean accent. However in recent years, some young Singaporeans have been identified to speak in a nonlocal manner. This study attempts to understand this phenomenon by answering two questions: how and why are these young Singaporeans sounding nonlocal? Speech stimuli from 9 young Singaporeans were gathered via a reading exercise and analysed for phonological variation against a list of features determined by past research as local or nonlocal phonological features. A questionnaire was also issued to measure the speakers’ linguistic proficiency, acquisition, habits as well as attitudes toward local and nonlocal varieties of Englishes, which were hypothesised as factors influencing the speakers’ accent. Overall, nonlocal-sounding speakers were found to display more occurrences of nonlocal phonetic features, drawing influence from external varieties of Englishes such as American English (AmE) and British English (BrE). The study also found a direct correlation between one’s language attitudes and linguistic performance, where nonlocal-sounding speakers were observed to display more desirability and positive attitudes toward external varieties as opposed to the local variety. While the primary focus for this study is on why and how some Singaporeans are sounding nonlocal, the current findings also prompts an imminent shift in the general evolution of World Englishes in the local context as we observe both local and nonlocal sounding speakers to exhibit phonological features from external influences.