Synopsis: the phonology of English in Africa and South and Southeast Asia

This synopsis will provide a very general overview of the phonological characteristics of varieties of English in Africa and south and Southeast Asia (henceforth Africa-Asia). The focus will inevitably fall on those characteristics that differ from varieties that are more or less accepted as a norm in international English: RP and ‘General American’ (however hard the latter may be to define). These two somewhat idealized varieties are chosen as a convenient means of comparison, as well as for the fact that they do have some prestige in the former colonies, especially via the media and in newsreading styles (rather than in colloquial speech). RP is the model promulgated by the British in all territories. The exception is the Philippines, which, after Spanish domination, came under the sway of the U.S. and ergo U.S. English. The second is LibSE, an offshoot of AAVE. As with the synopsis of morphological and syntactic characteristics, the features identified are unlikely to be used by all L2 speakers in a given territory at all times. Rather, the principles of variationist sociolinguistics apply: there is a degree of intra-speaker, inter-speaker and stylistic variation. In addition the features cited are mainly found in mesolectal and basilectal speech; acrolectal speakers usually evince accents that are closer to prestige TL norms.