An instrumental investigation of the vowel inventory of China English

ABSTRACT In today’s globalized world where English is increasingly used as a lingua franca , an increasing number of new English varieties are emerging in different parts of the world. China English (CE), as one of the fastest-growing varieties of English with the largest number of speakers, has been attracting a great deal of attention in recent years. This study aims to explore the vowel inventory of CE using an exploratory approach. Data were collected from 20 CE speakers who were recorded reading a standard elicitation list of words containing the 11 English monophthongs. Phonetic properties, phonemic contrasts, and allophonic variations of CE vowels were examined acoustically. Results provide some empirical evidence for the existence of a CE vowel system in which the vowel length contrasts are maintained, whereas the vowel quality contrasts tend to be neutralized to different extents, as compared to Inner Circle English varieties.