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- Title
African Englishes: The Indigenization of English Vowels by Zimbabwean Native Shona Speakers.
- Authors
Kadenge, Maxwell
- Abstract
This research is largely inspired by the increasing literature chronicling the worldwide emergence of "new Englishes" (Deyuan and David, 2009:70), particularly their subtype known as "African Englishes" (Mutonya, 2008:434). Although the variety of English that is spoken in Zimbabwe is clearly a distinct variation of African English, however it has not received significant attention from both theoretical and applied linguists. In this context, this study seeks to critically examine the vocalic characteristics of the variety of English that is predominantly spoken as a second language (L2) in Zimbabwe. In this regard, this exploratory research adopts a highly observational data collection method and qualitative data analysis approach in order to insightfully investigate the influence of native Shona phonology on the pronunciation of English vowels by Shona-English bilinguals. The main focus of this research is to analyze how native English simple monophthongs and complex vowels such as long monophthongs, diphthongs and triphthongs are pronounced by Shona-English bilinguals. This study shows that first language (L1) Shona speakers employ simplifying strategies such as monophthongization of diphthongs and glide epenthesis in order to reduce English diphthongs and triphthongs to five simple monophthongs corresponding to [i, e, a, o, u]. Furthermore, this investigation argues that these phonological processes are unconsciously employed by L1 Shona speakers in their spoken English in order to "build Africannes into the English language" (Chisanga and Kamwangamalu, 1997:10) and that this underpins its legitimate ownership by Zimbabweans.
- Subjects
AFRICA; ENGLISH language; INDIGENOUS peoples; CHRISTIANITY &; culture; MONOPHTHONGIZATION
- Publication
Journal of Pan African Studies, 2009, Vol 3, Issue 1, p156
- ISSN
0888-6601
- Publication type
Article