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!

Is there still any point in teaching RP?

Some years back, I was attending a conference in Taiwan, listening to a senior Taiwanese scholar present on the Received Pronunciation (RP). It is roughly the same as "BBC accent" or "posh Southeastern English accent". The presenter said only 1% of the British population spoke with such accent. And yet he recommended it be taught to learners in Taiwan. So, during the Q&A session, I asked: If there are so few people using it, why should we teach it? Then my boss sitting next to me covertly reminded me that it was impolite to ask questions to senior presenters during Q&A sessions, so I backed off.

And to answer this question now myself, I think there is still a value in exposing learners to the RP, even though it's a dying (?) accent in England.

Even though RP has long lost its prestige in England, it is still widely taught to "foreigners", especially in Europe. So you are likely to come across a second-language speaker of English with an RP-inspired accent. In Hong Kong, Singapore, India and other Anglophone countries in Asia (with the exception of the Philippines), the teaching model at schools still derive from the RP. But many Taiwanese learners, especially those at lower proficiency levels, are quite unfamiliar with anything other than the idealized General American pronunciation. So they find it rather hard to understand second-language speakers who have learned British English back in their home countries.

Despite the fact that its speakers are considered "affected" and "cold" within the UK itself, the RP is a well-documented accent. There are many dictionaries and ESL textbooks that use this pronunciation, including authoritative ones like Daniel Jones's English Pronouncing Dictionary. Those are handy for teachers when they are not sure about pronunciation. On the other hand, most American dictionaries don't prescribe any one particular pronunciation. The phonetic symbols they use are designed to allow room for variation. Although language is and always will be varied (and that's the beauty of it), but that's not necessarily a comfortable situation for teachers looking for something "definitive". (Especially so for "non-native" teachers, who feel insecure for their perceived lack the authoritativeness as an authentic source of English.)

Plus, the RP has retained its prestige, in out of all places, America. I've seen many TV programs, commercials and movies where (fake) posh British accent is used for some supposedly positive effect. Even though very few people in Britain actually speak like that, Americans seem to associate it with some kind of fancy/fanciful European stuff. So if you are thinking of going to America, having an RP sort of accent might help. I must add though, that this might not apply if you are not European. My experience is that some Americans are not as favorable to non-whites with a British-derived accent. Maybe they notice you look like a foreigner and have an "unusual" accent, so they just conclude that you have a "foreign" accent. (Across the border in Canada, though, I notice that some people expect "foreigners" to be taught British English, even if their own variety is so much closer to that of the US.)

But in the context of Taiwan, all I'm saying is we should expose learners more to different accents including the RP, which is quite useful because it's taught to international learners. I'm not saying that they should all try to sound like the Queen with an exaggerated "aristocratic" intonation. Don't do this all the more if you are going to the UK. There, people with regional working class or black accents are considered cool nowadays. I'm saying that you will find it becomes easier for you to understand people from many different countries speaking English, once you are familiar with what they are being taught at school: the RP.

Rhoticity in Hong Kong English: A Philippine influence?

I've wanted to write about this for a long time, but never found the time to do so.

I found this study about rhoticity in Singapore English (http://www.icphs2011.hk/resources/OnlineProceedings/RegularSession/Tan/Tan.pdf). In a nutshell, it found that many people in Singapore consider rhoticity (pronouncing the /r/ in words like "car" and "cart") to be a sign of good education and higher social status.

I was wondering about this for a long time. When I was living surrounded by Singaporeans about 20 years ago, none of them had a rhotic accent. Then I came across some very fashionable Malaysian students who tried to sound rhotic, seemingly in an attempt to appear "Americanized" and "cool". And recently, I started listening to Singaporean talk shows on internet radio, and noticed that more and more seemingly "upwardly mobile" people, especially female, are starting to "roll the r".

This is interesting because, from what I know, in southern England, having a rhotic accent is considered a sign of being a country bumpkin rather than hip and cool. (You sound like you are from Ireland or West Country or somewhere like that if you pronounce the "r". Even people in Lancashire don't do that anymore, you know!) So this is another sign of increasing dominance of American English even in traditionally British-oriented outer-circle Asia (minus the Philippines, of course).

Now, when I attended the IAWE conference in Hong Kong last year, there was a linguist from Hong Kong saying that some younger Hong Kong speakers are going rhotic due to the influence of the American media inputs. This is hardly surprising because many of the DJs and personalities on English channels of RTHK have north American accents. And if I'm not mistaken, among the expat communities in Hong Kong today, there are more Americans and Canadians than Brits.

I asked him if this could also be because many Hong Kong families hire Filipino helpers to take care of their children. In fact, quite often, those helpers are the only people with whom many Hong Kong children converse in English, so it would not be a surprise if Hong Kong youngsters picked up the Philippine rhotic /r/ from them, even if they are still taught the non-rhotic RP at school. But the linguist in question categorically denied this possibility. I was not quite convinced. Maybe some research is needed.