Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tzmfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T19:33:25.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The production of English monophthongs by Chinese Yi and Han speakers

A comparative acoustic analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2025

Jie Zeng Open the ORCID record for Jie Zeng [Opens in a new window] ,
Stefanie Pillai Open the ORCID record for Stefanie Pillai [Opens in a new window]  and
Shin Yi Chew Open the ORCID record for Shin Yi Chew [Opens in a new window]
Jie Zeng
Affiliation:
English Language Department, Faculty of Languages & Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia School of Foreign Languages, Chengdu Normal University, Chengdu, China
Stefanie Pillai
Affiliation:
English Language Department, Faculty of Languages & Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Shin Yi Chew*
Affiliation:
English Language Department, Faculty of Languages & Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*
Corresponding author: Shin Yi Chew: Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The English spoken in China is categorised within the Expanding Circle in the World Englishes paradigm. Of late, the diversity of Chinese dialects has drawn scholarly attention to China English accents. This study contributes to the existing literature on China English by focusing on the Sichuan province in southwestern China. It involves participants from the largest Han ethnic group and the Yi minority. English monophthongs produced by 40 Sichuan Han and Yi speakers were elicited, and their distribution and contrasts were examined and compared to provide insights into the production of their English vowels. Findings from the instrumental analysis indicate a lack of vowel-quality contrasts in specific vowel pairs produced by both Han and Yi speakers, resulting in a simplified vowel system. There are notable differences between Han and Yi speakers in the production of English vowels, possibly influenced by their different first languages. In addition, specific gender-based inconsistencies were also found, suggesting gender as an influencing factor in the production of English monophthong vowels. Overall, this study identifies Sichuan English as an emerging sub-variety of China English and supports the perspective that China English is an evolving and distinct variety rather than an interlanguage.

Keywords

China EnglishSichuan EnglishEnglish monophthongvowel productionYi and Han speakers
Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , First View , pp. 1 - 8
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Ao, Ran, and Low, Ee Ling. 2012. “Exploring Pronunciation Features of Yunnan English: The Pronunciation of Yunnan Speakers of English Provides an Interesting Context for Investigating Chinese English.” English Today 28 (3): 27–33. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078412000284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ao, Ran, and Low, Ee Ling. 2016. “A Description of the Yunnan English Accent.” World Englishes 35 (1): 18–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asiaee, Maral, Vahedian–Azimi, Amir, Atashi, Seyed Shahab, Keramatfar, Abdalsamad, and Nourbakhsh, Mandana. 2022. “Voice Quality Evaluation in Patients with Covid-19: An Acoustic Analysis.” Journal of Voice 36 (6): 879.e13–879.e19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2020.09.024.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ayu, Kipu. 2011. Yi–Chinese–English Phonetic Contrast Tutorial. 1st ed., edited by Yi Pu, . Kunming: Yunnan Nationalities Publishing House.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, and Weenink, David. 2022. Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer (Version 6.2.10) [Computer software]. http://www.praat.org/.Google Scholar
Bolton, Kingsley, and Graddol, David. 2012. “English in China Today: The Current Popularity of English in China is Unprecedented, and has been Fuelled by the Recent Political and Social Development of Chinese Society.” English Today 28 (3): 3–9. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078412000223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlson, Matthew T., Goldrick, Matthew, Blasingame, Michael, and Fink, Angela. 2016. “Navigating Conflicting Phonotactic Constraints in Bilingual Speech Perception.” Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 19 (5):939–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Yang. 2006. “Production of Tense-Lax Contrast by Mandarin Speakers of English.” Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica 58 (4): 240–49.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chen, Yang, Robb, Michael, Gilbert, Harvey, and Lerman, Jay. 2001. “Vowel Production by Mandarin Speakers of English.” Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 15 (6): 427–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699200110044804.Google Scholar
Chen, Shunting, and van de Weijer, Jeroen. 2018. “Consonant–Vowel Interaction in Sichuan Chinese: An Element-Based Analysis.” Lingua 212: 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2018.05.001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derdemezis, Ekaterini, Vorperian, Houri K., Kent, Ray D., Fourakis, Marios, Reinicke, Emily L., and Bolt, Daniel M.. 2016. “Optimizing Vowel Formant Measurements in Four Acoustic Analysis Systems for Diverse Speaker Groups.” American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 25 (3): 335–54. https://doi.org/10.1044/2015_AJSLP-15-0020.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Derwing, Tracey M., and Munro, Murray J.. 2005. “Second Language Accent and Pronunciation Teaching: A Research-Based Approach.” TESOL Quarterly 39 (3): 379–397. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deterding, David. 2006. “The Pronunciation of English by Speakers from China.” English World-Wide 27 (2): 175–198. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.27.2.04det.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deterding, David. 2009. “The Formants of Monophthong Vowels in Standard Southern British English Pronunciation.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association 27 (1–2): 47–55. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025100300005417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Jette G. Hansen. 2017. “China English: Attitudes, Legitimacy, and the Native Speaker Construct: Is China English Becoming Accepted as a Legitimate Variety of English?” English Today 33 (2): 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078416000171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fang, Fan. 2016. “Investigating Attitudes Towards English Accents from an ELF Framework.” The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics 3 (1): 68–80. https://doi.org/0000-0002-4210-9042.Google Scholar
Ge, Chuangui. 1980. “Rambling about Some Problems in Chinese–English Translation. [漫谈由汉译英问题.]” Chinese Translator's Journal (2): 1–8. https://doi.org/CNKI:SUN:ZGFY.0.1980-02-000.Google Scholar
He, Deyuan, and Zhang, Qunying. 2010. “Native Speaker Norms and China English: From the Perspective of Learners and Teachers in China.” TESOL Quarterly 44 (4): 769–89. https://doi.org/10.5054/tq.2010.235995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, Laina. 2003. “Pronunciation Problems of PRC Students.” In Teaching English to Students from China, edited by Ling, Lee Gek, Ho, Laina, Meyer, Lisa, Varaprasad, Chitra and Young, Carissa, 138–155. Singapore: University of Singapore Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Yan, and Hashim, Azirah. 2020. “A Quantitative Study of Chinese Learners’ Identities as Reflected in Their Attitudes toward English Accents.” GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies 20 (1): 151–168. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2020-2001-10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hung, Tony T. N. 2002. “English as a Global Language and the Issue of International Intelligibility.” Asian Englishes 5 (1): 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2002.10801086.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jin, Jingya, and Liu, Donghong. 2021. “Negative Transfer of Sichuan Dialect in English Vowel Acquisition.” International Conference on Asian Language Processing (IALP): 247–251. https://doi.org/10.1109/IALP54817.2021.9675207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kachru, Braj B., ed. 1985. Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lennes, M. 2017. SpeCT – Speech Corpus Toolkit for Praat (Version 1.0.0). First release on GitHub (1.0.0). Zenodo [Praat Script]. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.375923.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Jian. 2019. “(R) We Americanised?: The Emerging Rhoticity Features in China English.” English Today 35 (1): 28–35. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078418000111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Siqi, and Sewell, Andrew. 2012. “Phonological Features of China English.” Asian Englishes 15 (2): 80–101. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2012.10801331.Google Scholar
Lin, Wei, and Wang, WenPu. 2019. “Study of the Impact of Dialects on English Phonetic Acquisition in Sichuan and Chongqing.” The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology 1 (9). 42–46. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSST.2019.010908.Google Scholar
McLaughlin, Drew J., and Kristin J., Van Engen. 2020. “Task-Evoked Pupil Response for Accurately Recognized Accented Speech.” The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 147 (2): EL151–EL56. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0000718.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Bureau of Statistics. 2022. China Population Census Yearbook 2020. 1st ed. Vol. 1, edited by Yi Kang. Beijing: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar
Pillai, Stefanie, Mohd, Zuraidah. Don, Gerald Knowles, and Tang, Jennifer. 2010. “Malaysian English: An Instrumental Analysis of Vowel Contrasts.” World Englishes 29 (2): 159–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2010.01636.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Hongyan, and Van Heuven, Vincent J. 2006. “Acoustical Analysis of English Vowels Produced by Chinese, Dutch and American Speakers.” Linguistics in the Netherlands 2006: 237–48. https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.23.23wan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Qian. 2022. “An Instrumental Investigation of the Vowel Inventory of China English.” Asian Englishes 25 (1): 111–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2022.2158265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watt, Dominic, and Tillotson, Jennifer. 2001. “A Spectrographic Analysis of Vowel Fronting in Bradford English.” English World-Wide 22 (2): 269–303. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.22.2.05wat.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Ling. 2014. “A Comparative Study of Mandarin and Yi Phonetic Systems.” MA thesis, Southwestern University of China.Google Scholar
Yang, Jing, and Fox, Robert A.. 2014. “Perception of English Vowels by Bilingual Chinese–English and Corresponding Monolingual Listeners.” Language and Speech 57 (2): 215–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/002383091350277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yun, Hong 2014. “Positive Transfer of Sichuan Dialect on English Pronunciation Teaching.” In Computer, Intelligent Computing and Education Technology. Vol. 2, edited by Hsiang–Chuan Liu, Wen–Pei Sung and Wenli Yao, 352–355. Florida: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Zhang, Lingli. 2012. “International Intelligibility of Chinese-Accented English.” PhD diss., Central China Normal University.Google Scholar
Zhang, Lingli. 2015. “An Empirical Study on the Intelligibility of English Spoken by Chinese University Students.” Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics 38 (1): 36–54. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2015-0002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Xiaoyun. 2018. “The Properties and Use of English Spoken by Non‑English Majors in China.” PhD diss., University of Regensburg.Google Scholar
Zhao, Rong, Jiao, Lu, Wang, Min, and Wei, Hang. 2022. “The Influence of L2 Experience on L1 Speech Perception: Evidence from Mandarin–English Bilinguals.” International Journal of Bilingualism 27 (5): 533–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/136700692211049.CrossRefGoogle Scholar