Sri Lankan English Phonology

Question 1

Phonology of SSLE

Answer 1

•SLE phonology is a marker of social class.

•there are two main varieties of english.
The two varieties come into being due to a specific difference when using sounds.

Standard Sri Lankan English phonology

• used by westernized urbanized elites
• most speaker have attended prestigious schools
• have exposure to English media
• the foundation of SSLE is British english
• mostly influenced by sinhala and tamil

Features (Gunesekara,2010)
Vowels
•SSLE vowels are closer to the position of cardinal vowels.
•Diphthongs are replaces with monophthongs.
/ai/ ee, /ou/ /oo/
• use of tqo distinct back vowels /c/ and /o/ different vowels.
•/oo/ and /cc/ are treated as two different phonemes.

Consonants
•Labio dental approximate is used for both labio dental /v/ and bilabial fricative /w/
•detal stops /t/ and /d/ are used instead of the interdental fricatives.
•retroflex stop /t/ and /d/ are used instead of alveolar stops /t/ and /d/
• alveor trill /r/ is used instead of post alveolar frictionless /r/
• /sh/ instead of sgsh/

Question 2

Phonology of Non standard Not pot English

Answer 2

Most speakers are not pot speakers
Do privilege of attending prestigious schools
Not familiar with SSLE
more familiar with Sinhala or Tamil
Not pot speakers are identified by the use if /o/ and
/c/

Features
Confusion of the two back vowels /o/ and /c/
Overusing /c/
Confusion of the two the bilabial stop /p/ and labio dental fricative /f/
Insertion of the lax front vowel /I/ infront of consonant clusters.
Overuse of /f/
Using voiceless alveolar fricative /s/ for voiced alveolar fricative /z/

Question 3

Why teach SLE phonology in the ESL classroom

Answer 3

To make awareness about SLE
Encouraging students to use them instead of foreign accents and phonology in order to represent their identity.
To eliminate not pot features
To change any unsupportive attitudes towards sle.