English Pronunciation Problems on Cantonese ESL learners

Cantonese phonological system characteristics make Cantonese ESL learners common to have English pronunciation problems. There are five main aspects in Cantonese and English phonological systems contributing to distinct phonological patterns appeared in Cantonese ESL learners English problems.

1. Substitution of Cantonese consonants to English

According to the English speech produced by the native Cantonese speaker, “Zoe” and “is” are pronounced as [soυi] and [is] instead of [zoI] and [IZ] respectively. [z] is substituted by [s] in Cantonese English probably because [z] is absent in Cantonese phonological system. We never say 小[siu] and 線[sin] in [ziu] and [zin].Besides, all fricatives are voiceless in speakers’ minds. (Hung, 2000, p.347) Since [s] and [z] have the same place of articulation (alveolar) and same manner (fricative) in English phonological system. So, speakers seldom realize the existence of [z]. Such cases also appear in speech sounds including pairs of [f][v] and [θ][f] in words of “of” [Λf] and “thinks” [θIηks] respectively.

2. Confusion between voiceless consonants

From the transcription of “because” [pIk z] by the speaker, it clearly differs from the actual pronunciation [bIk z] with [p] replacing [b]. Situation also happens when it comes to “English” [ ], speaker pronounces it as [ ] with [k] replacing [ ]. In addition, phonemes including /p/, /t/and /k/ are often incorrectly pronounced as [ph], [th] and [kh]. Speaker pronounces “speaking” [spikIη] in [sphkhIη]. The aspirated voiceless bilabial stop [ph] replaces unaspirated voiceless bilabial stop [p]. And aspirated voiceless velar stop [kh] also replaces unaspirated voiceless velar stop [k].

3. Shortening of long vowels to short vowels

Cantonese has no differences in the length of vowels. Long vowels are dropped in Cantonese English as it is difficult for non-native English learners to distinguish long and short vowels. For example, in the phonetic forms, “she” and “in” have long vowel [i] in Received Pronunciation, it is pronounced as short vowel as [I] in Cantonese English.

4. Confusion among vowels [ǽ], [e] and [ə]

Cantonese ESL learners usually find uneasy to distinguish differences among [ǽ], [e] and [ə] because only [e] and [ε] exist in Cantonese phonological system like地[dei6] and 耶[jε4]. For example, speakers will easily pronounce “accurate” [ǽkjərət] as [εkhuweI], “and”[ənd] as [εnd].

5. Deletion of final consonant (coda) or reduction of consonant clusters

Cantonese is a monosyllabic tonic language. Each syllable cannot contain more than one consonant onset. Therefore, ESL learners frequently pronounce wrongly. For the words “afraid’[əfred], it is treated as [afei] without the [r]. And for words consisting coda in syllable structure, speakers will also forgetfully omit it perhaps because of Cantonese monosyllabic structure, such as the words of “front”, it is treated as [fΛn] without [t] at the end. Sometimes, /l/ is deleted in the coda preceded by a central mid [ə] vowel because it is realized in Cantonese English as a velar glide [w] or diphthong [oυ], such as “people” [pipəl] is replaced by [phiphoυ].