South African English phonology

Vowels

Monophthongs

• is a long close front monophthong, either close to cardinal or slightly mid-centralised. It does not have a tendency to diphthongise, which distinguishes SAE from Australian and New Zealand English.
• The vowel is phonemically equal to in General and Broad and to in Cultivated. Thus, happy and immediately are phonemically and in General and Broad and in Cultivated. The pronunciation with is sometimes considered to bare secondary stress, so that happy can be analysed as.
• is typically a weakly rounded retracted central vowel, somewhat more central than the traditional RP value. Younger speakers of the General variety often use a fully central. Backer and sometimes more rounded variants occur before. Broad SAE can feature a more rounded vowel, but that is more common in Afrikaans English.
• is usually central or somewhat fronter in White varieties, though in the Cultivated variety, it is closer to , which is also the normal realisation before in other varieties. Younger speakers of the General variety use an even more front vowel, so that food may be distinguished from feed only by rounding. The vowel is often a monophthong, but there is some tendency to diphthongise it before sonorants.
• is close-mid or higher in General, often with centralisation. Closer variants are typical of female speech. General is similar enough to in RP and similar accents as to cause perceptual problems for outsiders. Broad variants are very similar to the General ones, but in Cultivated the vowel can be as open as . In General and Broad, the vowel can be lowered to or even when it occurs before.
• is realised as a centring diphthong in the Cultivated variety. The broad realisation is a monophthong, close-mid or higher . In General the vowel is often a close-mid monophthong, but it can also be open-mid or the Cultivated variant. Monophthongal realisations are often stigmatised by General speakers, even those who diphthongise. When realised as, can be considered to be the long counterpart of as there is almost no difference in quality between the two.
• In General and Broad, is a rounded front vowel that varies between close-mid and open-mid, with the former being more usual. In Cultivated an unrounded, RP-like mid central is used, with a more open being a possible alternative, though the latter could also be thought of as a hypercorrection.
• In Cultivated, final is sometimes more open than in other varieties, so that comma can be pronounced or instead of the more usual.
• is close-mid, as in Australian and New Zealand English. A somewhat more open realisation is possible in the General variety and usual in Cultivated SAE.
• In Cultivated and General, is realised as or somewhat closer. However, the new prestige value in younger Johannesburg speakers of the General variety seems to be open front, the same as in Modern RP. Before, the fully open is the norm in the General variety, whereas before voiced stops and nasals the vowel tends to be centralised and lengthened to, often with slight diphthongisation. Broad can be as close as mid, encroaching on the Cultivated realisation of.
• is normally an open vowel, either central or retracted front, although younger, especially female speakers of the General variety may realise this vowel as close and front as open-mid centralised front.
• is realised as a mid-centralised cardinal with very weak rounding, or sometimes unrounded. The unrounded variant can be raised to open-mid, especially when it occurs in non-prominent syllables. The unrounded open-mid variant is gaining ground among General speakers in Cape Town and Natal, who generalise it to other positions. There have been no reports of merging with.
• In General, is an open back unrounded vowel, either fully back or slightly more front. The broad variants can be rounded, sometimes with raising to and/or shortening to or, so that Broad dark can encroach on General and Cultivated dock, or at least be differentiated from the latter by length. Weak rounding of this vowel is now somewhat less stigmatised than it was in the 20th century. In Cultivated, a categorically unrounded advanced back or central is used.

  The split

Diphthongs

• is realised as in General and Cultivated. In General, more open onsets are possible in accents closer to Broad SAE. However, in Broad SAE, the first element is actually back.
• is a diphthong in Cultivated. In General and Broad, it is more often a monophthong, with a diphthong with a retracted onset also possible in Broad.
• is realised as in all White varieties. In the Cultivated variety, the first element may be lowered to.
• regularly has a rather front onset in Cultivated and General varieties. In Cultivated, it is realised as, with the former being more common. In General, the onset is always rounded, and the offset is central, with a tendency to monophthongise it to. The Broad realisation is back.
• is realised as in Cultivated, in General and in Broad.
• is realised as in White varieties, but Broad speakers tend to monophthongise it to, especially after.
• is a glide from to in the Cultivated variety, whereas in Broad it is monophthongised to. The General variety varies between these two, with a growing tendency to use the monophthong , especially when doesn't precede.

  Consonants

Plosives

• In Broad White South African English, voiceless plosives tend to be unaspirated in all positions, which serves as a marker of this subvariety. This is usually thought to be an Afrikaans influence.
• General and Cultivated varieties aspirate before a stressed syllable, unless they are followed by an within the same syllable.
• * Speakers of the General variety can strongly affricate the syllable-final to, so that wanting can be pronounced.
• are normally alveolar. In the Broad variety, they tend to be dental. This pronunciation also occurs in older speakers of the Jewish subvariety of General SAE.

  Fricatives and affricates

• occurs only in words borrowed from Afrikaans and Khoisan, such as gogga 'insect'. Many speakers realise as uvular, a sound which is more common in Afrikaans.
• may be realised as in Broad varieties, but it is more accurate to say that it is a feature of Afrikaans English. This is especially common word-finally.
• In Indian variety, the labiodental fricatives are realised without audible friction, i.e. as approximants.
• In General and Cultivated varieties, intervocalic may be voiced, so that ahead can be pronounced.
• There is not a full agreement about the voicing of in Broad varieties:
• * states that:
• ** Voiced is the normal realisation of in Broad varieties.
• ** It is often deleted, e.g. in word-initial stressed syllables, but at least as often, it is pronounced even if it seems deleted. The vowel that follows the allophone in the word-initial syllable often carries a low or low rising tone, which, in rapid speech, can be the only trace of the deleted. That creates potentially minimal tonal pairs like oh vs. hoe.
• * states that in Broad varieties close to Afrikaans English, is voiced before a stressed vowel.

  Sonorants

• General and Broad varieties have a wine–whine merger. However, some speakers of Cultivated SAE still distinguish from, so that which is not homophonous with witch.
• has two allophones:
• * Clear in syllable-initial and intervocalic positions.
• ** In Cultivated variety, clear is often also used word-finally when another word begins with a vowel.
• * Velarised in pre-consonantal and word-final positions.
• ** One source states that the dark has a "hollow pharyngealised" quality, rather than velarised or uvularised.
• In the Broad variety, the sequences and tend not to form syllabic and, so that button and middle are phonetically and . John Wells analyses the broad pronunciation of these words as having a secondarily stressed schwa in the last syllable:,.
• In Cultivated and General varieties, is an approximant, usually postalveolar or retroflex. In emphatic speech, Cultivated speakers may realise as a trill. Older speakers of the Cultivated variety may realise intervocalic as a tap , a feature which is becoming increasingly rare.
• Broad SAE realises as a tap, sometimes even as a trill - a pronunciation which is at times stigmatised as a marker of this variety. The trill is more commonly considered a feature of the second language Afrikaans English variety.
• Another possible realisation of is uvular trill, which has been reported to occur in the Cape Flats dialect.
• South African English is non-rhotic, except for some Broad varieties spoken in the Cape Province. It appears that postvocalic is entering the speech of younger people under the influence of American English.
• Linking is used only by some speakers.
• There is not a full agreement about intrusive in South African English:
• * states that it is rare, and some speakers with linking never use the intrusive.
• * states that it is absent from this variety.
• In contexts where many British and Australian accents use the intrusive, speakers of South African English who do not use the intrusive create an intervocalic hiatus. In these varieties, phrases such as law and order can be subject to the following processes:
• * Vowel deletion: ;
• * Adding a semivowel corresponding to the preceding vowel: ;
• * Inserting a glottal stop:. This is typical of Broad varieties.
• Before a high front vowel, is foritified to in Broad and some of the General varieties, so that yeast can be pronounced.