新潟弁：ごめんください

ごめんくださいの使われ方が新潟では特徴的です。

新潟では、誰かと会ったときの挨拶や、電話の会話の冒頭で相手が名乗ったときの挨拶として、ごめんくださいといいます。

私が育った東京では、そのような使い方はしなかった記憶があります。

誰かの家を訪れたとき、昔はドアベルがあまりなかったので、大声でごめんくださーいと言ったものです。

また、近畿で育った祖母は、さようなら、もう切りますよという別れの挨拶として、電話などでごめんくださいと言っていました。新潟とちょうど逆ですね。こっちから電話をかけたのに、いきなり相手からごめんくださいと言われて、キレそうになったものでした。

この使い方は、新潟で生活してしばらくしてから気づきました。新潟弁本にあまり登場しないところを見ると、おそらく、新潟人が方言だとあまり認識していないのかもしれません。他地方にもあるが意味が違う言葉でよくあることです。

ただ、多くの「透明な新潟弁」（方言だと気が付かれない言葉）とは違い、使用者は割りと年配者か、市外出身者が多いような気がします。そのうち滅びる言葉かもしれません。

Language policy at our home

Mixing languages is a most natural human linguistic behavior. Most languages are mixed. When languages come into contact with each other, they are bound to blend together. There's no such thing as a pure language.

In my family, I make it a point to code-mix when I speak to my children. As a result, they freely switch from Mandarin to Japanese to English. At any given moment, they may happen to be speaking in Japanese, and there's something they want to express which happens to be simpler to say in Mandarin, then they would just insert that part in Mandarin into a Japanese utterance.

Some people are afraid that mixing languages may confuse children. But mine never seems to find any problems in figuring out what situations or which people called for straight Japanese or straight Mandarin with no code-mixing.

That all changed when they started going to an "English-only" eikaiwa school where Japanese is strictly prohibited.

Whenever they came across something they wanted to express but didn't know how in English, they paused and asked me: "Uh... How do you say ... in English"? This happened frequently enough for them to get tired of speaking English and give up speaking English altogether.

I wasn't worried, though. I was sure they would figure out very soon that even though it was not OK to mix languages while they were in the eikaiwa school, it's OK when they were at home. And sure enough, they did.

Trinidad and Tobago going rhotic?

This video provides a rare opportunity to hear Trinidad and Tobago's TV ads.

You can here it in the background.

Instead of a typical Caribbean accent, you hear something similar to a standard Singapore accent.

Both Singaporean and Trinidadian Englishes are influenced by the presence of a large Indian community, so that's to be expected.

What's interesting is that there is also a commercial that has a rhotic accent in, presumably, an attempt to sound American.

Again, the situation seems similar to those of Singapore and Malaysia.

Malaysians becoming rhotic

It's been ages since I last updated my blog.

I've decided to update it since both my parents and my brother are updating their blogs regularly.

So here's my post today. I've been noticing more and more younger generation Singaporeans, Malaysians and Hongkongers are starting to sound rhotic.

People say it's the influence of American media, but I don't buy it. Back then when I was there, all those places had lots of American programs on TV, but nobody was sounding rhotic.

I suspect one factor is the presence of Filipino domestic helpers in their households. But I noticed that  Hong Kong specialists are not very willing to admit the Philippine influence. But if you are brought up by a Filipina since young, it's inevitable that you end up having a rhotic accent, even if your local English teacher at school is non-rhotic.

So, anyway, I was talking to a Malaysian today, and noticed something interesting.

Malaysians who use English at home and in their social lives all the time since young, many of whom are Chinese and Indians, tend to be more non-rhotic. They sound very similar to Singaporeans to me.

But those Malaysians who speak from non-English speaking backgrounds (Bornean ethnic groups, Chinese-educated Chinese, etc.) who learn English later on in their lives as a foreign language, tend to have more American-like accents and therefore more rhotic.

A similar thing can perhaps be said about Hong Kong. When I went to a university in Hong Kong several years ago to attend a conference, many students proficient in English are mainlanders, and they had American-oriented accents.

In Singapore, socially-upward people, especially females, tend to be more rhotic. (I read an academic article before that said a rhotic accent is considered to be the proper pronunciation in Singapore despite the fact that Standard Singapore English is supposed to be RP-based.)

I wonder if this spread of rhoticity and formerly non-rhotic Southeast Asia is somehow related to the worldwide spread of Philippine English!