User:MiltonLibraryAssistant/Idiolect

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General description

The English spoken in Singapore is generally non-rhotic like, and.

Vowels and lexical sets
The lax and tense vowel sets are not always distinguished, e.g. , – merger. Virtually all speakers have the. Anecdotally, speakers are more likely to distinguish.
 * The is universal.
 * Most speakers don't differentiate and . Before, there is no distinction.
 * and are most likely to be differentiated before  in words of a single syllable, e.g. ,.
 * The vowels are shorter before voiceless consonant codas and longer elsewhere, e.g. ,.
 * Before word-final, corresponds to  in SgE, e.g.  , except in the words   and.
 * The vowels and  may have monophthongal or diphthongal realisations, e.g.   or,   or.
 * There may be a length distinction between and  before voiced consonants, e.g. ,  . The  vowel is long in open syllables.  is usually more open and further front. Some speakers merge the two vowels:  in closed syllables, and  in open ones.
 * Words spelt with -ayer : prayer, layer, etc. end in rather than . Lair ends in  for many too (so it no longer rhymes with fair).

Lexical sets of Singapore English (maximalist)

Next–text split

There is a split affecting the vowel in SgE. A handful of words including leg and bed have the divergent raised vowel. Most of these words end in -d or -g. The word peg on the other hand, has the usual vowel, so peg and leg do not rhyme. This has resulted in like red  and read  (past tense). The vowel in edge varies from speaker to speaker — it is either or, though the former is overall more common.

Words with the vowel in lieu of .


 * † Some speakers

Words ending in unstressed -et or -it

Unstressed before final  in  corresponds to, ,  or  in SgE. The word digit is pronounced, market is pronounced , closet is and rocket is. So the endings of, , and  are distinct.


 * -words —, , — words ending in -it.
 * -words —, , ,.
 * -words — Words ending in -let,, , , , ,.
 * -words — Words ending in -ocket,, , , , , , ,.

 → and 

In the word, the a is an  sound, the  pronunciation is atypical and very rare. However, in,  seems to be the more common pronunciation, owing to the fact that it is a less commonly encountered word. The word and other words ending in -arian may fall into in either category, with some speakers using, and others ;  seems to be more common though.


 *  words — area, areal
 *  words — carrion, barium, chariot, hilarious, nefarious, scarier, carrier, barrier, (not all speakers) malaria
 * May fall into either category — variant, various, Bulgaria, Bavaria, words beginning with aero-, ending in -arian or long words ending in -arium

Note that this only applies to words spelt with the letter a, words like terrier retain the pronunciation.

Fix–mix split

For some speakers, the sequence diverges into two groups in SgE. The words six and mix end in, while other words like fix end in. As such, fix and mix may not rhyme for some speakers. Compare in Cantonese (e.g.,  sik1) and Malay -ik.

Dairy–fairy split

For some speakers, dairy does not rhyme with fairy.


 * Words that rhyme with dairy —, (fewer speakers)
 * Words that rhyme with fairy —, , , , , , etc.

Extra–comma split

Words ending in -a correspond to either  or  in SgE (this is not predictable).


 * Sofa, coma, opera, cinema and extra end in.
 * China, India, comma, camera and stanza end in.

Final is a short, open central. The -er ending is always.

Other patterns


 * and  are not homophones, and neither are   and.
 * The words, and  (-ew following a postalveolar consonant) may end in  rather than  for some speakers.
 * The RP sequence may correspond to either  or  in preconsonantal environments. The word  can start with  or . Before vowels, it corresponds to  only, so  and  are homophones.
 * The -er- sound in words like serious and material  is  and never a diphthong . Consecutive  sounds are avoided. Likewise in zero, the -er- sound is not a diphthong as it is immediately followed by a vowel in the same morpheme.

Consonants
Pronunciation of ⟨th⟩


 * Th-stopping for initial th is common. The can be pronounced or . Th-fronting for coda  is also common. Intervocalically, the pronunciations of  are more likely be maintained. Other speakers may th-stop or th-front.

L-vocalization


 * Word-final or preconsonantal is  into a high, back vowel like  or . After  and sometimes, this sound may be lost altogether. Before coda ,  is  to , e.g. mile . This is the case for most speakers. In other accents (especially accents influenced by languages that permit unvelarized coda ),  may not be vocalised.

Aspiration


 * For some speakers, are consistently  (except in loanwords from Chinese, aspiration is usually kept). It is natural for initial or stressed  to have aspiration.  plosives are kept in loanwords (tenuis, voiced and aspirated stops can be found in loanwords of Min Nan origin). Loanwords from Malay are usually pronounced with unaspirated stops.

Pronunciation of ⟨wh⟩


 * The is complete, except for some older speakers, common content words maintain, e.g. white , and function words like what may be pronounced with  when enunciated or stressed (older speakers only).

Coda stop consonants


 * Most of the time, word-final stops are, e.g..
 * Coda may have additional  in stressed syllables, e.g..

Prosody
See Singapore English. Loanwords of Sinitic origin usually keep their original tones.

Sample Text
Text

Narrow transcription



Mandarin Idiolect
The four tones are, , and  respectively. The third tone may simplify to or  and may be realised with creaky voice.

Consonants


 * Before, x, j and q are laminal alveolar with optional palatalisation , e.g..
 * Before, x, j and q are laminal palato-alveolar , e.g..
 * The initial h is always glottal and r is always an approximant.
 * Syllables like  and   are never realised with glide initials.
 * w is always, never which is found in Northern accents.
 * Many speakers (especially older speakers) use alveolar for sh, zh and ch, like in Taiwanese Mandarin.
 * Other speakers are more likely to use apical postalveolar without too much retroflexion.

Vowels


 * The vowel in is cardinal.