Variation in English : perception and patterns in the identification of Maltese English

Abstract

This dissertation investigates patterns of speech perception and speech production, and some of the relationships between the two, in a newly emerging dialect of English, Maltese English (MaltE). The research taps into the familiar sensation felt by many native MaltE listeners, that they would know if a person was Maltese even if they were speaking in English, and even if the English concerned contained a range of patterns of variation across different Maltese speakers. In considering both patterns of perception and of production of aspects of variation in MaltE, I investigate whether 28 native MaltE listeners are sensitive to the perception of what might be considered identifiably MaltE, even though there may also be variation in the use of such identifiably MaltE characteristics. I then explore patterns of production in both natural and more scripted speech in six MaltE speakers within the framework of a continuum of varation, with reference to five particular characteristics widely noted to be associated with MaltE speech patterns. Here I expect that degrees of variation in some of the five characteristics may correspond quite closely with the listeners’ perceptions about what they consider to be more or less identifiably MaltE. Results indicate a promising degree of correspondence between perceptions, on one hand, and the frequency and/or form of variation present in the five characteristics studied, on the other hand. The results also point towards a better understanding of the interplay between perception and production in language variation. To this end the results of both the perception and the production patterns are also used to build the beginnings of an index which may represent different degrees of variation in each MaltE speaker, across a number of features identified as salient for MaltE.