This article covers the phonological system of South African English (SAE) as spoken primarily by White South Africans. While there is some variation among speakers, SAE typically has a number of features in common with English as it is spoken in southern England (in places like London), such as non-rhoticity and the TRAP–BATH split.
The two main phonological features that mark South African English as distinct are the behaviour of the vowels in KIT and PALM. The KIT vowel tends to be "split" so that there is a clear allophonic variation between the front [ɪ] and central [ɨ̞] or [ə]. The PALM vowel is characteristically back in the General and Broad varieties of SAE. The tendency to monophthongise /ɑʊ/ and /aɪ/ to [ɐː] and [aː] respectively, are also typical features of General and Broad White South African English.
General South African English features phonemic vowel length (so that ferry/ˈferiː/ and fairy/ˈfeːriː/ and possibly cot/kɒt/ and cart/kɑːt/ differ only in length) as well as phonemic roundedness, so that fairy/ˈfeːriː/ is distinguished from furry/ˈføːriː/ by roundedness. [1] [2]
Features involving consonants include the tendency for /tj/ (as in tune) and /dj/ (as in dune) to be realised as [tʃ] and [dʒ], respectively (see Yod coalescence), and /h/ has a strong tendency to be voiced initially.
The vocalic phonemes of South African English are as follows: [3]
Front | Central | Back | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |||||
short | long | long | short | short | long | short | long | |
Close | ( ɪ ) | iː | ɨ | ʊ | ʉː | |||
Mid | e | eː | øː | ə | ( ʌ ), ( o ) | oː | ||
Open | ɛ | ( a ) | ɒ | ɑː | ||||
Diphthongs | eɪ aɪ ɔɪ ɑʊ œʊ ɪə ʊə |
RP features three phonemes /ɪ/, /ə/ and /ʌ/ which contrast in unstressed closed syllables, so that Lenin/ˈlenɪn/ and except/ɪkˈsept/ are distinct from Lennon/ˈlenən/ and accept/əkˈsept/, whereas rabbit/ˈræbɪt/ does not rhyme with abbot/ˈæbət/ and cucumber/ˈkjuːkʌmbə/ has a different second vowel from industry/ˈɪndəstri/.
In stressed closed syllables, only /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ appear. This is also true of Cultivated SAE, but the contrast between /ɪ/ and /ə/ is not always maintained. In General and Broad, it is invariably lost, yielding a high schwa [ ɨ̞ ] (hereafter transcribed without the diacritic). This renders Lenin homophonous with Lennon as /ˈlenɨn/, except with accept as /ɨkˈsept/ and makes rabbit/ˈrɛbɨt/ rhyme with abbot/ˈɛbɨt/.
This [ ɨ ] quality is also used in most cases in stressed syllables (so in all three syllables of limited[ˈlɨmɨtɨd]), except when in contact with velars and palatals, after /h/ as well as in the stressed word-initial position, where the conservative [ ɪ ] quality (further fronted to [ i ] in Broad) is retained. In Broad, [ ɨ ] may be lowered to [ ə ]. In General, it can happen only in unstressed syllables, so that scented and centered can both be pronounced [ˈsentəd], rather than [ˈsentɨd].
This phonetic detail is not reflected in transcriptions in this article, except in the word-final position where the vowel is transcribed with ⟨ə⟩. The STRUT vowel is truly contrastive only in the Conservative variety, where there is a clear distinction between /ɪ/ and /ə/. Because of the merger of those two in General and Broad, STRUT may be considered a mere stressed mid schwa [ ə ], which, according to Lass, is a common and perhaps pivotal value in General SAE spoken in Cape Town.
He transcribes this vowel with ⟨ɜ⟩, which is defined as an additional mid central vowel on the 1989 IPA vowel chart. In this article, the symbol ⟨ə⟩ is used instead. STRUT is a highly variable vowel, which varies from a centralized [ ʌ̈ ] (mostly in word-list style) to an open central [ ä ]. The PAP vowel /a/, a non-native open central vowel that appears mostly in loanwords from Afrikaans overlaps with the openest allophones of STRUT. For speakers that have [ ä ] as a norm for STRUT, PAP is not a distinct class. [4] [5] [6]
Sources differ in the way they transcribe South African English. The differences are listed below. The traditional phonemic orthography for the Received Pronunciation as well as the reformed phonemic orthographies for Australian and New Zealand English have been added for the sake of comparison.
South African English | Australian | New Zealand | RP | Example words | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
This article | Wells 1982 [18] | Lass 1984 [19] | Lass 1990 [20] | Branford 1994 [21] | Rogers 2014 [22] | ||||||
iː | iː | iː | iː | — | i | iː | iː | iː | fleece | ||
i | — | — | ɪ | i | happy, video | ||||||
ɨ | ɪ | ɪ / ə / ɘ | ɪ̈ | ɪ | ɪ | ə | ɪ | kit | |||
ə | ɪ̈ / ə | ə | bit | ||||||||
ə / ɘ | ə | ə | ə | rabbit | |||||||
ə | accept, abbot | ||||||||||
ə | a | sofa, better | |||||||||
ʌ | ɜ | ɜ / ɐ | ɐ | ʌ | a | ʌ | strut, unknown | ||||
ʊ | ʊ | ʊ̈ | ʊ̈ | ʊ / ʊ̈ | ʊ | ʊ | ʊ | ʊ | foot | ||
ʉː | uː | ʉː | ʉː | — | u | ʉː | ʉː | uː | goose | ||
e | e | e | e | ɛ / e | e | e | e | e | dress | ||
eː | eə | — | eː | — | eː | eː | eə | eə | square | ||
øː | ɜː | — | ø̈ː | — | ɜ | ɜː | øː | ɜː | nurse | ||
o | — | — | o | — | — | — | — | — | gogga | ||
oː | ɔː | oː | oː | ɔː | ɔ | oː | oː | ɔː | thought, north | ||
ɛ | æ | ɛ | æ̝ | æ / ɛ | ɛ | æ | ɛ | æ | trap | ||
a | — | — | ɐ | ä | — | — | — | — | pap, gogga | ||
ɒ | ɒ | ɒ̈ | ɒ̝̈ | ɒ | ɒ | ɔ | ɒ | ɒ | lot | ||
ɑː | ɑː | ɑː / ɒː | ɑ̟ː | ɑ | ɑ | aː | aː | ɑː | palm, start | ||
eɪ | əɪ | — | eɪ | — | əj | æɪ | æɪ | eɪ | face | ||
aɪ | aɪ | ɐː | äɪ / äː | aɪ | aː | ɑɪ | aɪ | aɪ | price | ||
ɔɪ | ɔɪ | — | ɔɪ | — | ɔj | oɪ | oɪ | ɔɪ | choice | ||
œʊ | əʊ | — | œ̈ɤ̈ | — | əw / ʌː | əʉ | aʉ | əʊ | goat | ||
ɑʊ | aʊ | ɑ̈ː | ɑ̈ɤ | — | ɑw | æɔ | æʊ | aʊ | mouth | ||
ɪə | ɪə | — | ɪə | — | iə | ɪə | iə | ɪə | near | ||
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | kreef | ||||
ʊə | ʊə | — | ʊ̈ə | — | ʊə | ʉːə | ʉə | ʊə | cure | ||
— | — | ʉː | fury | ||||||||
— | — | oː | sure | ||||||||
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | oom |