In the 1980s, Kachru came up with his classic three circles model of World English,  which describes the new Englishes  “in terms of three concentric circles representing the types of spread, the patterns of acquisition and the functional domains in which English is used across cultures and languages” (Kachru, 1985, p. 242). His classic three circles model includes (Kachru, 2005):

  • Inner Circle, which consists of the traditional English speaking countries like Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia
  • Outer Circle, which consists of the places which had a colonial link with Britain or the USA and have now adopted English as an official language, like Singapore, India, and the Philippines
  • Expanding Circlewhich includes the countries which have no colonial link to Britain or the USA but now use English as a foreign language, such as China, Japan, Germany and Brazil

Over the past decades, the development of English varieties in mainland China and Hong Kong has caused plenty of interest at different levels. An ever-expanding number of proficient English speakers in mainland China and Hong Kong makes people believe that “Hong Kong English” (HKE)  (Schnelder, 2007) and “China English” (CE) (Ge, 1980, p.2) will possibly become new varieties of English that will be socially accepted with their independent identities.

Hong Kong English (HKE)

The term "Hong Kong English" refers to the English spoken by native Hong Kongers with its special accent and characteristics. It is primarily spoken by those whose first language is Cantonese and it is often considered as the Hong Kong variant of China English. According to Kachru’s model, the line between Outer Circle or Expanding Circle is not always clear in Hong Kong. Like an institutionalized "Outer Circle" variety, English in Hong Kong has a legal status as an official language and the written form is widely used in various contexts, such as governmental documents and public notices.

The legitimacy of "Hong Kong English" as a recognized new variety of English is a matter of heated debate and frequent controversy, but no one can doubt that Hong Kongers speak English with an identifiable accent and "share a common underlying phonological system, regardless of whether HKE is characterized as an 'interlanguage' or a 'new variety' of English" (Hung, 2000, p1).

The phonological features of Hong Kong English have caused plenty of interest in both Hong Kong and overseas over recent decades (e.g. Luke and Richards, 1982; Bolton and Kwok, 1990; Hung, 2000; Stibard, 2004; Deterding et al, 2008). One of the earliest studies on HKE phonology was done by Luke and Richards (1982). In this study, they investigated and listed some distinctive phonological features of HKE, such as the substitution of /n/ for /l/ in initial position and /w/ for /v/. Other common features of HKE suggested by previous studies include lack of length contrast in vowels, absence of voicing contrast in fricatives, L-vocalization, monophthonization of diphthongs, syllable-timed rhythm, etc.

If you are interested in these pronunciation features of Hong Kong English, please go to Read More for more details.

China English (CE)

China is a multicultural country  where a large number of dialects are spoken, including eight major dialect groups "Northern Chinese (also known as Mandarin), Wu, Hsiang, Kan, Hakka, Northern Min, Southern Min, and Yueh" (Chang, 1987).  As Kirkpatrick (2007) argued, speakers of China English come from all over China and have different accents because of  the influence from different home dialects. However,many previous studies (e.g. Chang, 1987; Deterding, 2006) suggested that there are also some common features that are  shared by Chinese speakers of all native dialects, like

  • absence of length contrast in vowels
  • insertion of schwa in consonant clusters
  • substitution of dental fricative sounds (i.e. /θ/ in "thanks" and /ð/ in "them")
  • vocalization of black /l/

References

Bolton, K. and H. Kwok. (1990). The Dynamics of the Hong Kong Accent: Social Identity and Sociolinguistic Description. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 1, 147-72.

Chang, J. (1987). Chinese speaker, Learner English: a teacher’s guide to interference and other problems (2nd ed) In M. Swan & B. Smith, (Eds.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Chan, A. Y. W. & Li, D. C. S. (2000). English and Cantonese phonology in contrast: Explaining Cantonese ESL learners’ English pronunciation problems. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 13 (1), 67–8.

Chen, W. D. (1983). Structures and functions of English Intonation. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Teaching Press.

Deterding, D. (2006). The pronunciation of English by speakers from China. English World-Wide, 27(2), 175-198

Deterding, D. & Wong, J. & Kirkpatrick, A. (2008). The pronunciation of Hong Kong English. English World-Wide29(2), 148-175. doi:10.1075/eww.29.2.03 det.

Deterding, D. (2011). ELF-based pronunciation teaching in China. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 33(6), 3–15.

Duanmu, S. (2000). The Phonology of Standard Chinese. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Francis, A.L. (2008). Perceptual learning of Cantonese lexical tones by tone and non-tone language speakers. Journal of Phonetics, 36, 268–294.Reterived from http://psychology.msu.edu/SleepLab/Files/Francis_Ciocca_Ma_Fenn2008.pdf

Ge, C.G. [葛傳椝] (1980). [漫談由漢譯英問題] Mantan you han yi ying wenti (Free discussion on Chinese-English Translation). [翻譯通訊]Fanyi Tongxun (Chinese Translator’s Journal), 2, 1–8.

Groves, J. (2009). Hong Kong English – Does it Exist? HKBU Papers in Applied Language Studies. 13.54-79. Reterived from http://lc.hkbu.edu.hk/book/pdf/v13_04.pdf

Ho, L. (2003). Pronunciation problems of PRC students. In G. L. Lee, L. Ho, L. Meyer, C. Varaprasad & C. Young (Eds). Teaching English to Students from China(pp. 138–55). Singapore: University of Singapore Press.

Hung, T. (2000). Towards a phonology of Hong Kong English. World Englishes, 19, 337-56.

Hung, T. (2005). “Phonological features of ‘New Englishes’”. Paper presented at The First International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English, Edinburgh.

Hung, M. J. (1986). Putonghua-English-Cantonese Comparative Phonetics. Hong Kong: Jinye Publishing.

International Phonetic Association, ed. (1999). Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: English language in the outer circle. In K. Bolton & B. B. Kachru (Eds.), World Englishes:

Critical concepts in linguisticsVol. 3 (pp. 241- 269). London: Routledge.

Kachru, B. B. (1997).World Englishes 2000: Resources for Research and Teaching..

In L. E. Smith & M. L. Forman (Eds.) World Englishes 2000 (pp 209-251). Honolulu: College of Languages, Linguistics and Literature.

Kachru, B. B. (2005). Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.

Kirkpatrick, A., & Xu, Z. (2002). Chinese pragmatic norms and China English, World Englishes, 21(2), 260-279.

Kirkpatrick, A. (2007). World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Ladefoged, P., & Disner, S. F. (2012), Vowels and Consonants 3 edition, Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.

Li, C. and Thompson, S. A. (1981). Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Li, D. C. S. (1996). Issues in Bilingualism and Biculturalism: A Hong Kong Case Study. New York: Peter Lang.

Li, D. C. S. (2000). Phonetic borrowing: Key to the vitality of written Cantonese in Hong Kong. Written Language and Literacy 3(2), 199–233.

Luke, K-K. and J. Richards. (1982). English in Hong Kong: functions and status. English World Wide 3, 47-64.

Peng, L. and J. Setter. (2000). The emergence of systematicity in the English pronunciations of two Cantonese-speaking adults in Hong Kong. English World-Wide 21, 81-108.

Population Census Summary Results (Report). (2011). Census and Statistics Department. February 2012. p. 37, Retrieved 14 July 2013.

Roach, P. (2009). English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course, 4th Ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-78613-4.

Roach, P. (2004). British English: Received Pronunciation, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34 (2), 239–245, doi:10.1017/S0025100304001768.

Setter, J., Wong, C.S.P., & Chan, B.H.S. (2010). Hong Kong English.Edinburgh, UK:Edinburgh University Press.

Stibbard, R. (2004). The Spoken English of Hong Kong: A Study of Co-occurring Segmental Errors. Language, Culture and Curriculum 17, 127-142.

Smith, L. E., & Nelson, C. L. (2006). World Englishes and issues of intelligibility. In B. B. Kachru, Y. Kachru & C. L. Nelson (Eds.), The Handbook of world Englishes, (pp 428-445). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Schneider, E. W. (2003). The dynamics of new Englishes: From identity construction to dialect birth. In K. Bolton & B. B. Kachru (Eds.), World Englishes: Critical concepts in linguistics: Vol. 1 (pp. 125-185). London: Routledge.

Schneider, E. W. (2007). Postcolonial English – Varieties around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Xu, Z. C.(2010). Chinese English, Features and Implications. HongKong, China: Open University of Hong Kong Press.

Wee, L. H. (2008). Phonological patterns in the Englishes of Singapore and Hong Kong. World Englishes, 27: 480–501. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-971X.2008.00580.x

Wang, H. (2007). English as a lingua franca: Mutual intelligibility of Chinese, Dutch and American speakers of English. LOT dissertation series, 147. LOT, Utrecht.

Zhu, L. (2011). Research on Chinese English Phonetics-The process from Chinese phonetics to Chinese English Phonetics(漢語語音對中式英語語音的影響研究), Bejing, China:China Environmental Science Press.

Zhang, F.C. &Yin, P.P. (2009). A Study of Pronunciation Problems of English Learners in China. Asian Social Science, 5(6).

Van de Poel, K. (2002). Interlanguage Phonology: Implications for a Remedial Pronunciation Course For Chinese Learners of English. (Antwerp papers in linguistics). Retrieve from http://webhost.ua.ac.be/apil/apil100/hide.pdf

Hits: 4072