Phonological Varieties of Interdental Fricative Voiced and Voiceless ‘TH’ among Philippine English Lectal Speakers

Abstract

Guided by the research works of Tayao (2004) and de Leon (2016), and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) conventions of sounds, this study describes the phonological varieties of interdental fricative voiced and voiceless ‘th’ among the six lectal speakers. Six participants took part to embody the speakers from acrolect, mesolect, and basilect groups. With the use of a poem read by the participants and which was audio- taped for transcription purposes, the following research objectives were attained: 1) frequency of deviation of each speaker from the GAE to a new variety of pronouncing words in terms of voiced interdental fricatives and voiceless interdental fricatives; 2) lectal categories which conformed to the GAE pronunciation; and 3) the rate of speaking of each participant. Analysis exhibits that pronunciation of words with regard to both voiced and voiceless interdental fricatives, the basilectal speakers produced the greatest number of deviations, followed by acrolectals while mesolectals have the least. In other words, it is the mesolectal speakers who conformed and observed well the General American English (GAE) standard of pronunciation. However, as to their rates of speaking, the acrolectal speakers emerged to be the fastest.