Language dominance and its influence on accent
What is it about?
This study examined the English accents of 10 early English-Malay bilinguals in Singapore who differed greatly in their language dominance, which is defined by their language history, use, proficiency, and attitudes. The results showed that, compared to the Malay-dominant subjects, the accent of the English-dominant bilinguals lacked ethnic-specific features so much so that raters who listened to their recordings thought they were ethnically Chinese.
Why is it important?
The findings show that language dominance is a determinant of accent variation in Singapore English, and may also be so in similar linguistic contexts. Studies that wish to describe language varieties in multilingual, multidialectal contexts should consider language dominance as a factor to limit possible variation between subjects.