REALISATION OF FINAL PLOSIVES IN SINGAPORE ENGLISH AMONG ELDERLY

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that word-final plosives in Singapore English tend to undergo the processes of Release, Unrelease and Deletion. Using data collected from semistructured interviews, the present study takes a quantitative approach to the phonological realisation (i.e. released, unreleased or deleted) of word-final plosives in the natural speech of Singapore elderly aged 60 to 69. It also examines the effect of morphology, in particular how the rules apply to the -ed suffix and stem-final /d/. Quantitative results suggest that participants are aware of the past tense suffix and its meaning, and make greater effort to articulate -ed in their speech. In addition, we examine the effect of gender and age on the overall rate of Release, Unrelease and Deletion. The results show that females tend to be more standard than males, and that there is a positive correlation between age and the rules.