A PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE VARIATION IN THE FILM

“CRAZY RICH ASIANS”

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A Paper

Presented to

MRS. LYSTER TISTON-RAMOS, M.A.

Cebu Normal University

Cebu City

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In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements of the Course

ELT Cognate 4011

(The English System of Phonemes)

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By

CARMELLE DAWN L. VASAY

M.A.Ed. ELT

December 20, 2019

 INTRODUCTION

The movie “Crazy Rich Asians” is an American romantic comedy movie directed by Jon

M. Chu. This a contemporary movie with multiple settings, first it was in New York then

later moved to Singapore.

In the year 1995, the Young family arrived in a hotel in London to check in but their

reservation was denied because of a racist staff. In response to what the staffs did, the

Young family purchased the hotel, forcing the staff to give them their room. Moving on to

the year 2018, Rachel Chu, an American born Chinese New York University instructor

traveled with her boyfriend Nick Young to his hometown in Singapore for his best friend’s

wedding. Prior to their arrival in Singapore, Rachel doesn’t have any idea of the wealth

of his boyfriend Nick of whom was considered as the most eligible bachelor in Asia. The

day after her arrival in Singapore, Rachel visited her college friend Peik Lin and her family,

who are also shocked when she mentioned that she’s dating Nick Young. Peik Lin

explained to her the history of Nick’s family fortune and the fanfare surrounding Collin’s

wedding. She also warns Rachel of how overly critical Nick’s family is due to their status

in the society though Rachel is unconcerned about this at first. There are lots of women

who admired Nick and so there are also lots of women who wanted to bring Rachel down

as well as Nick’s mother Eleanor who wants nothing but for them to break up.

The film is a good subject for phonological analysis of language variation due to the

variety of English used in the film not to mention American English, Singaporean English

and some British English accent. Apart from the diversity of culture presented made me

curious about the relevance of the language used in their culture due to the fact that there

are some accents and even particular words that I heard for the first time.
 ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY ON THE PHONOLOGY OF THE FILM

The movie showcased phonological variations staring with the first setting of the film in

New York down to the rich culture of Singapore that deals with Singaporean English with

a mixture of the Malay culture.

Singaporean English is one of the variations featured in the movie. Its phonology is

successfully depicted in every character though there are some with a bit mixture of an

American or British accent and some little Indian accent to some characters. Some

noticeable characters with phonological features that are evident on them are the

following:

Let’s start with the scene first. During the trip of the couple to Singapore Rachel visited

her friend during their university days Peik Lin Goh at her family’s home, a mansion

covered with gold and Gucci.

Constance Wu as Rachel Chu

Rachell has just her normal American accent like the native ones but he can speak

Chinese though. She has no evidence of British accent maybe there is but it’s

unnoticeable.

Henry Golding as Nicholas Young

When they were still in NYC and the mother of Nick called because of an intel report made

by a reporter from Radio One Asia, her mother called and he obviously used the British

accent when he said mom as [mɒm]. He obviously doesn’t elicit a Singaporean accent

of any sort which is evident also when he said (I really love that place, thank you very

much) it has a British accent.

Michelle Yeoh as Eleanor Young

Mrs. Young in their arrival in the hotel in London when they were not entertained due to

racism, she immediately called her husband and they were able to buy the hotel. Out of

intimidation to the staffs, she ordered them to get a mop pronounced as [mɒ p] and floor

[flɔ: (r)] as which is a showcase of somewhat British accent.

Awkwafina as Goh Piek Lin

On the other hand, Rachel’s uni friend has a different variation of English. She has a

Chinese accent with an American accent too Black American accent to be exact. Here

are some of the notable words she said: up in a Chinese accent when she approached

Rachel on her arrival to their house, followed by when she said (I know something never

change, right?) this was on an American accent a Black American accent one. Later on,

she went back to a Chinese accent when said (very excited) then shift again to Black

American accent somewhat fast and raising voice when she said (Did you not know?

Does she not know? Wearing this? Wearing that?) somewhat in an insulting voice.

However later on the conversations she said mean which is to be pronounced in American

English and British as [mi:n] but she says as men. Then back to Black American accent

again (Okay? All right!).

Ken Jeong as Goh Wye Mun

When Mr. Go first meets Rachel, he greeted him in a broken English with an over- the-

top Chinese accent. (Nice to meet you too, Chu. Koo koo ka Chu you, poo poo. Then
said “Nah, I’m just kidding”.) dropping the fake inflection and speaking American

English, “nah I’m just messing with you”. The line though delivered casually like that

of a dad’s joke was breaking down years of Asian stereotypes which is very intentional.

Grateful which is supposedly [gre Itfl] in American and British was pronounced as gretful.

Koh Chieng Mun as Neena Goh

When she went out to call the attention of her dogs to stop barking, she also has some

sort of an Indian accent mixed with Chinese maybe because of how he prolonged the

pronunciation of some words. When she also said Auntie Neenah, inspired, hall, mirror

(somewhat prolonged Chinese Indian accent) but when she said [v ə’se Ilz] I observed

she has also a little British accent. Then shifted again to Chinese- Indian broken English

ceremony as celemony, America as Amelica then later on added the expression of the

Singaporeans lah! on her statement “This is a simple food, lah!.”, “You’re invited to

Colin Khoo’s wedding, ah?”. She is a character with mixtures of language and accents

on her, she then shifted back to her somewhat Indian- Chinese accent on the statements

(What is his name? This is a very small island. Maybe we know his family. Why you

never say before?) in a broken and slow mannered English. Even the Rachel has many

pronunciations to them.

Sonoya Mizuno as Araminta Lee

This character on the other hand while they were talking with Nick, Colin and Rachel has

a British accent too and not an Asian when she said (Thank you! Thank you I rest my

case!) and when she also pronounced married life as [mærid]

Jing Lusi as Amanda Ling

This character pronounced her with somewhat silent r as to the British accent as well

[hIə(r)].

Phonological Features

Linking [r].

This is a concerned word having a final phoneme that isolate occurrences. In the movie

“Crazy Rich Asians”, this seems to be heard most of the time amongst the different

characters state for example the word here and mirror which is said by the mother of

Nick and the mother of Piek Lin. This is often observed in some cases among Eastern

England and New York City and later there are some Singapore since some of the people

here were able to study in Cambridge by which they were able to get some inculturation.

Stress Patterns

Stress patterns on words are one of the many aspects which distinguish American English

from British English and so with their stress patterns differ due to the differences in their

pronunciations. For instance, the word mop, floor, here, mom. Since most of the

characters are into the British accents, words will have the following transcriptions and

stress patterns: [mɒ p] , [flɔ: (r)] , [hIə (r)], [mɒm]. However, if they used the

American accents it could have been the following: [ma:p] , [flɔ:r] , [hIr], [ma:m].
 CONCLUSION

Indeed, all speakers of English have their varied ways of expressing themselves using

the language. Some were exaggerated and some were already influenced with the culture

in their inhabited place but what matters most is, we raise awareness on diversity avoid

criticism because we should be the ones who’ll be uplifting ourselves in the future. The

movie just showcased how talented Asians are, and that we could compete in the big

screen though we are Asian. It is the language that divides us nor our culture but it’s how

we see ourselves depending on the norms of the past.

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