SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the phonology of English spoken by educated Telugu speakers in southern India. Telugu English Is one of the non-native varieties of English. The study alms at interpreting the description of this variety of English in terms of the Influence of the source language (Telugu) on the target language (English). In order to assess the extent of Influence of the source language, a broad description of certain phonological and phonetic features of Telugu is given. Particular attention is drawn to the word structures in Telugu which are different from those in English. Both segmental and suprasegmental features are included in this work. Vowels and consonants, word accent, emphasis and intonation are the features examined both at the phonological as well as the phonetic levels. The patterns of Telugu English are broadly' compared with the patterns of Received Pronunciation of England. Instrumental work carried out includes palatographic evidence in support of the phonetic description of Telugu consonants. Mingograms are provided to illustrate the durational differences between emphatic and non-emphatic forms of Telugu words. The findings of this research point to three major phenomena: (1) Certain features are carried over from the source language (Telugu) to the target language (English). The carryover seems to be greater in respect of suprasegmental features (e.g., word accent, intonation) than the segmental features. (2) Certain features which are not characteristic of Telugu are acquired for English. (3) There are areas in which English patterns are kept distinct from Telugu patterns.