Pronunciation

This chapter focuses on the phonology of Brunei English, particularly its consonants, vowels, and intonation, with an additional component on a preliminary description of the Brunei English accent. While some of its pronunciation features are shared with the English varieties of Singapore and Malaysia, such as the realisation of initial voiceless TH as [t], and the regular omission of final [t] in phrases such as ‘fist in’, Brunei English is also widely documented to be distinct due to its rhotic nature and rhoticity is now said to be one of the possible distinguishing markers of the Brunei English accent. For the discussion of vowels, Bruneians are known to merge the long and short vowels in ‘feast’ and ‘fist’, and the lack of reduced vowels in function words such as ‘of’, ‘that’ and ‘had’ is very common. Spelling pronunciation is common as well, especially with the occurrence of [ɒ] in the first syllable of ‘company’. The effect of Americanisation on the phonology of Brunei English is also covered in this chapter, alongside other sound changes in progress such as t-flapping and vowel centralisation and fronting. Finally, there is a brief consideration of rhythm, stress placement, and the occurrence of a final rising tone, as well as a discussion on the potential and plausible features of classifying an accent as Brunei English.