Name: Neyla Shakira Fadillah

Students ID: 2110631060096

Class: 3A

Subject: Phonetics and Phonology

Everybody speaks differently, even identical twins! People with the same English accent
have the same phonological system and a high degree of consistency in articulation, but their
voices are still distinctly different. It might be possible to transcribe all these individual
differences – voice quality, pitch level, tone, speed, etc., but our interest is the transcription of
more general properties of pronunciation.

An accent indicates a person’s identification with a community of people. English

accents vary according to geography – national and regional types, e.g., British, American,
Indian, Scottish, English Midlands, North Walian English, Ulster and so on. We could add here
foreign accents too; non-native speakers of English share particular features with others from the
same linguistic background. Accents also vary in a historical perspective; the pronunciation of
the younger generation of today sounds quite different in some respects from that of their
grandparents, for instance. This how historical change comes about over the centuries, with
slight changes of pronunciation in successive generations.

Although the term Malaysian English is sometimes used to refer only to the local form of
English (also sometimes referred to as Manglish), it is actually an umbrella term for all the varieties of
English used in Malaysia. Both the educated and local or colloquial forms of English are used in
Malaysia depending on the context and the person being spoken to. Malaysians also speak English in
a variety of accents. This may depend on their first languages (e.g., Malay, Chinese, Tamil, and a host
of other languages), social, geographical, and education backgrounds.  

In general, non-standard syntactic or grammatical features are more common in the colloquial
spoken variety of Malaysian English than in the standard written form.  First is Not marking tense
and aspect The past tense form of the word is often used instead of the present perfect form, usually
with the words already, before, and last time.  For example: I ate already.  (I have eaten.),
I went there before. (I have been there.), I saw her last time. (I have seen her previously.) Then
Deletion of be. In colloquial Malaysian English, the verb be is sometimes dropped in the continuous
form, such as in: We cooking chicken tonight (We are cooking chicken tonight.).

Indian accents are indeed influenced by British English, but that is not the end of the
story. Indian Accented English has its own unique patterns that set it apart from British English.
Some aspects of Indian Accented English and British English are similar in comparison to
American English, such as dropping of vocalic “r” sounds (such as the “r” at the end of the
words “for” and “car”) and the pronunciation of a clear “t” sound in words like “butter”
(pronounced as a quick “d” in American English). There are, however, many distinct differences
between British English and Indian Accented English. The melody of a person’s speech, the
placement of stress within words, and the placement of stress within sentences may be different
in Indian Accented English from both British and American English. In addition, speakers with
Indian accents have a different production of some consonant sounds. Indian accented speakers
tend to stop the air for the “th” sounds (e.g. “thigh” and “then”), making the “th” sound like a “t”
or a “d.” The “v” and “w” sounds are often used interchangeably, so “vine” may sound like
“wine” and vice versa. In addition, some speakers may curl their tongue back to produce sounds
such as “t,” “d,” and “l” giving these sounds a different quality than we hear in American or
British English. Speakers with Indian accents may also have several differences in the way they
produce vowel sounds.

In Chinese, tone is word-specific, but in English tone is statement-based and must be

adjusted for what’s new, what’s different, and what’s relative. English pronunciation of vowels
and consonants, however, may be a big problem. There are sounds that are made in English that
do not have a similar sound in Chinese. There are several English vowels that sound similar to
Chinese vowels; can replace it with a Chinese vowel. But English has a lot more well-articulated
vowel sounds for effective use of stress, rhythm and intonation. Chinese is tonal, so the ear is
very attuned to changes in pitch levels. However, since tone does not change the literal meaning
of each word in English (as it does in Chinese), it may ignore tone in English. Whereas in
Chinese, tone determines each word, in English it determines the relationship of statements to
each other. Tone also determines the attitude of the speaker, which may not be stated literally.
References:

Transcribing the Sound of English – Tench, Paul_.pdf

https://public.oed.com/blog/introduction-to-malaysian-english/

https://www.accentreductionaustin.com/indian-accents-just-another-version-of-british-english/

https://americanpronunciationcoach.com/accent-reduction/chinese-accents/