English World-Wide - Volume 28, Issue 2, 2007

This paper provides an initial analysis into the phonetic and phonological features of Niuean English as spoken in the New Zealand Niuean community. The paper highlights similarities and differences between New Zealand English and Niuean English, points to subtle differences due to potential substratal influences, and considers the effects of recent changes in New Zealand English on the English of Niuean speakers in New Zealand.

This paper uses a multivariate analysis of variable agreement in existentials with plural reference in a corpus of Quebec English to determine the status of variable agreement as a vernacular universal. Excluding the frequent invariant form there’s from analysis, both structural and processing considerations are shown to operate. A separate multivariate analysis provides support for the hypothesis that there’s is a lexicalized form with its own set of constraints. Cross-variety comparison reveals little evidence of regional diversification and suggests instead that differences observed between studies reflect the distribution of data in each corpus. Similarities of language-internal constraints across studies provide support for variable agreement as a vernacular universal.

In deciding whether non-native English is to be classified as a new variety or simply as learner language, a yardstick is needed against which the candidate variety can be tested. This paper offers such criteria for ESL-variety status, based on the three processes in the development of a new variety: expansion in function, nativization of form and institutionalization of a new standard. The criteria are exemplarily applied to the case of non-native English spoken on the European Continent, a recent controversial contender for variety status. It is suggested that if the proposed criteria are applied, Euro-English does not qualify as a New English.

Studies on English intonation have shown that native English speakers consistently accent new information and deaccent given information in the discourse structure (Brown 1983; Fowler and Housum 1987; etc.). On the other hand, findings on the intonation of some non-native English varieties, Nigerian English (Gut 2003, 2005) and Indian English (Gumperz 1982) for example, suggest that speakers of these varieties of English rarely deaccent given information in the discourse structure, hence making both types of information prominent. This study reports findings of the analyses of the intonational marking of the two types of information in Cameroon English (CamE). Data from two speaking styles, the Passage Reading Style (PRS) and the Conversational Style (CS), were analysed both auditorily and acoustically. Results show that, unlike speakers of some other non-native varieties of English, Cameroon English speakers make new information more prominent than given information in the discourse structure. As for how Cameroon English speakers acoustically implement the intonational marking of new and given information, the findings further reveal that they make more use of intensity and duration than of other acoustic parameters like high pitch accent (H*), findings which are somewhat dissimilar to those documented in native varieties of English whereby the most obvious acoustic correlate of new information in discourse is the high pitch accent (H*).