Abstract The study of vowel quality has traditionally been based on single-point formant frequency measurements. There is considerable evidence now acknowledging spectral change as an essential part of the vowel system. Previous descriptions of Singapore English vowels have generally been impressionistic, with few offering detailed analysis of vowel quality and based on single-point formant frequency measurements at that. Collectively, they converge on the observations that the target monophthong pairs /i, ɪ/, /u, ʊ/, /ɔ, ɒ/, /ɑ, ʌ/, /æ, ɛ/ and /ɜ, ə/ are each realized as conflated single vowel sounds and the target diphthongs /ɛi/, /ɛə/ and /oʊ/ are monophthongized, with some overlap with the monophthongs listed above. This study analyzes the inherent spectral change of Singapore English vowels based on a dataset from the National Speech Corpus and examines possible contrast in duration between its tense-lax vowel pairs with the aim of providing an update on the description of its vowel system. Contrary to past conclusions, the present study finds no clear conflation of the monophthong pairs /i, ɪ/, /u, ʊ/, /ɔ, ɒ/, /ɑ, ʌ/ and /ɜ, ə/, or the reduction of /ɛə/. However, results do show the conflation of /æ/ and /ɛ/, and the monophthongization of /ɛi/ and /oʊ/.
Christina Hwee Ling Low (Wed,) studied this question.
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