SOME TYPICAL FEATURES OF HONG KONG ENGLISH PROSODY AS MARKERS OF NATIONAL IDENTITY

Abstract

The study focuses on some of the most typical prosodic features of Hong Kong English, the variety which emerged in the former British colony under the substrate influence of the speaker’s native language – Cantonese. The acquired prosodic features are treated in the current study as markers of the speaker’s national identity in spoken speech.The typical features of Hong Kong English prosody are identified by means of acoustic analysis of rhythmic and melodic organization of spontaneous speech of 20 Hong Kong English speakers. At the conclusion of the study, the author gives a prosodic characteristic of the variety, viewed as a medium for expressing the speaker’s national identity. It is believed that the findings of the research will advance the knowledge of the understudied Hong Kong English phonology, as well as reduce risks of communicative failures in cross-cultural discourse due to its divergences from Standard English pronunciation.

Keywords

• просодия
• вариант английского языка в гонконге
• национальная идентичность
• prosody
• hong kong english
• national identity