Abstract
Speakers are usually able to discriminate between different rhythmic patterns (Fuchs, Speech rhythm in varieties of English, Springer, 2016; Pettorino and Pettorino, %V and VtoV: an acoustic perceptual approach to the rhythmic classification of languages, Il Torcoliere, 2016). This study focuses on an Indian diasporic community situated in Heidelberg, Germany, where subtle differences in L2 phonological characteristics may index locally situated ethnic identities. In order to ascertain whether rhythmic properties have salience for the community, the present paper presents findings on how acoustically measurable rhythm varies across regional varieties of Indian English. Rhythmic measurements based on two acoustic perceptual parameters (%V and VtoV) were carried out on a one-minute passage read by five speakers of educated Marathi English and Telugu English. Results were then compared with educated London English. They indicate that Telugu English is more syllable-timed than Marathi English.
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Notes
- 1.
%V is a duration-based rhythm metric accounting for the proportion of vocalic intervals in an utterance (Ramus et al., 1999).
- 2.
NRI and PIO are Indian legal categories used to refer to people of Indian birth, descent or origin living and working outside the Republic of India. More specifically, NRIs are people living abroad on a temporary resident permit—as in the case of Indian students located in Heidelberg—while PIOs are people how have acquired the citizenship of the host country.
- 3.
Many universities in Germany offer international students the possibility to enroll in selected courses taught entirely in English. Thus, admission does not require any proof of German skills.
- 4.
These descriptors were collected from semi-structured recorded interviews and informal conversations.
- 5.
In keeping up with the terminology used in speech rhythm research, the term ‘speech rate' has been used here as a measure indicating how many articulatory units (such as vocalic intervals and syllables) are realised per time unit excluding pauses. However, research focusing on non-native proficiency has shed light on the distinction between ‘articulatory rate' and ‘speech rate', with the former being used in the sense of articulatory units per time unit excluding pauses and the latter including pauses. For further details, see Gut (2009).
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Appendices
Appendix A: Details on Subjects
Marathi Speakers
Speaker | English education | Years in HD | Age | Sex | Faculty | German |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AC | English-medium Government schools | 1 | 24 | F | Applied Computer Science | No |
PC | Marathi-medium Private schools | 2 | 26 | M | International Business and Engineering | No |
PD | English-medium Government schools | 0.8 | 24 | M | International Business and Engineering | Yes |
SN | English-medium Private schools | 0.1 | 26 | M | Engineering | No |
AK | Marathi until 5th grade then English-medium Private schools | 2 | 27 | M | Engineering | Yes |
Telugu Speakers
Speaker | English education | Years in HD | Age | Sex | Faculty | German |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DS | English-medium Private schools | 1 | 24 | F | Information Technology | No |
JD | English-medium Private schools | 2 | 25 | M | Information Technology | No |
SA | English-medium Private schools | 1 | 25 | M | Information Technology | No |
DV | English-medium Private schools | 2 | 27 | M | Mechanical Engineering | Yes |
PG | English-medium Private schools | 2 | 23 | M | International Business and Engineering | Yes |
London Speakers
Speaker | English education | Age | Sex | Faculty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
KJ | Public School | 29 | F | MA Applied Imagination (Arts and Management) |
SMD | Public School | 27 | M | Politics and International Studies |
LJ | Public School | 27 | M | Jazz Institute |
MV | Public School | 25 | M | Political Science of International Studies |
DJ | Public School | 27 | M | Manufactured Engineering |
Appendix B
Reading passage, excerpt from Desai ( 2001 : 5 [1980])
“That is the risk of coming home to Old Delhi”, she announced in the hard voice that had started up the prickle of distrust that ran over the tips of the hairs of Tara's arms, rippling them. “Old Delhi does not change. It only decays. My students tell me it is a great cemetery, every house a tomb. Nothing but sleeping graves. Now New Delhi, they say is different. That is where things happen. The way they describe it, it sounds like a nest of fleas. So much happens there, it must be a jumping place. I never go. Baba never goes. And here, here nothing happens at all. Whatever happened, happened long ago—in the time of the Tughlaqs, the Khiljis, the Sultanate, the Moghuls—that lot.” She snapped her fingers in time to her words, smartly. “And then the British built New Delhi and moved everything out. Here we are left rocking on the backwaters, getting duller and greyer, I suppose. Anyone who isn't dull and grey goes away—to New Delhi, to England, to Canada, the Middle East. They don't come back”.
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Regnoli, G. (2023). Rhythmic Contrast in Marathi English and Telugu English. In: Fuchs, R. (eds) Speech Rhythm in Learner and Second Language Varieties of English. Prosody, Phonology and Phonetics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8940-7_3
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