Effects of dialect and setting on word stress perception in Indian English
2020 - 2025, funded by the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (Autralian Research Council)
KlDialects of English that emerged in former British colonies (e.g. India or Nigeria), spoken as a second (L2) or first language (L1), are notable for their distinctive prosody due to contact with indigenous languages and ongoing complex multilingualism. Research suggests that differences in prosody may lead to (mis)communication between speakers of different English dialects. However, we currently have an incomplete grasp of which prosodic features typically contribute to this. We also have limited knowledge about how speakers of newly emerged dialects adapt when they migrate to countries where other English dialects are spoken.
Project members:
Dr. Olga Maxwell (PI, University of Melbourne, Australia)
Prof. Elinor Payne (PI, University of Oxford, UK)
Prof. Dr. Robert Fuchs (PI)
To fill this gap, this study investigates Indian English (IndE) as spoken (1) in India, and (2) by the Indian diaspora in (i) Australia, (ii) the UK and (iii) Germany, as well as (3) by speakers of (a) British English, (b) Australian English and (c) L2 English speakers in Germany as baseline data. The aims are to examine how recently-arrived migrants adapt to such diverse linguistic contexts, and to assess whether they retain features signalling their ‘Indian identity’ or adapt to the features of the local dialect. We specifically look at word stress, which is crucial for distinguishing words in British and Australian English (e.g. OB-ject (noun) vs ob-JECT (verb)) but not in IndE, where speakers are variously unable or less able to hear stress differences (Maxwell & Fuchs, 2019). By contrast, speakers of mainstream dialects of English (e.g. Australia) can identify stressed syllables by relying on a combination of phonetic cues, such as vowel quality, pitch, duration, and intensity. German speakers of English are of interest because similar to mainstream English speakers, they will be able to identify word stress, but they may not use the same phonetic cues as a result of L1 influence from German.
The project aims to:
- investigate the processing of word stress by proficient Indian English listeners in India and in the diaspora;
- examine which phonetic cues listeners rely on and how their speech behaviour compares with speakers of Australian and British English as well as English L2 speakers in Germany (control groups);
- evaluate whether and to what extent this prosodic feature is sensitive to linguistic modification by looking at three different settings (Australia, where an ‘old’ variety of English is the de facto language used for all forms of communication; the UK, the main language of which is an ‘old’ variety of English from which other varieties are historically derived, and which is used as a prestige ‘target’ for teaching English in India; and Germany, where English is used by many speakers as an additional language in certain contexts, alongside L1 German).
A quantitative indicator of reaching these aims is the collection and analysis of data from 30 speakers of IndE in India, 30 IndE speakers in the diaspora (Australia, the UK, Germany), 30 L1 speakers of English in Australia and the UK and 30 L2 speakers of English in Germany. A qualitative indicator of success is the analytical result, revealing patterns of convergence and divergence between the groups of Indian English speakers in different settings.
An online experiment will be designed following the approach used by Chrabaszcz et al. (2014). Participants will complete a forced choice identification task on nonce disyllabic words with fully crossed combinations of the four cues signaling word stress in English (vowel quality, pitch, duration, and intensity; 64 stimuli, two repetitions, 25 minutes). A language background questionnaire will be embedded in the online experiment, allowing us to control for sociolinguistic background and proficiency, especially for IndE speakers.