Prosodic variation of English in Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad. Issue 1 (22nd November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Meer, Philipp; Fuchs, Robert; Deuber, Dagmar; Lacoste, Véronique; Hänsel, Eva Canan
• Other Names: MEER PHILIPP guestEditor.; SCHMALZ MIRJAM guestEditor.
• Is Part Of: World Englishes. Volume 42:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 48
• Page End: 72
• Publication Date: 2022-11-22
• Subjects: English language -- Foreign countries -- Periodicals; English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers -- Periodicals; English language -- Variation -- Periodicals; Intercultural communication -- Periodicals; 428.2407
• DOI: 10.1111/weng.12615
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0883-2919

Abstract

Abstract: Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. However, there is little empirical research on prosodic aspects of English in the region. This paper provides a comparative phonetic analysis of several pitch parameters (pitch level, range, dynamism, rate of change, variability in rate of change, and tone rate) in English language data from Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad that comprises read and spontaneous speech from 243 speakers. The results show that a wide pitch range and a high degree of variability in pitch, as mentioned in previous works, are not necessarily characteristic of English in the Caribbean overall, but that there are considerable cross‐territorial prosodic differences, with English in Trinidad showing more variability than in Dominica and Grenada, particularly among female speakers. Socioprosodic variation, largely specific to Trinidad, was also identified.