The pronunciation of postvocalic /r/ in door, mother, and bird is quite variable, although most speakers exhibit r-lessness to some degree (Wells 1982). The speech of both black and white speakers tends to be non-rhotic, aligning with many dialects of England and with American English in the earlier Plantation South. The use of postvocalic /r/ in The Bahamas shows a pattern similar to that found for African American Vernacular English (Fasold and Wolfram 1970). Vocalization occurs in a word-final position when followed by a consonant (e.g. four cats) or vowel (e.g. four apples), with a following consonant favoring postvocalic r loss over a following vowel. Stressed nuclear r in bird or sir is more likely to be rhotic, with some ethnic division; black Bahamians are more likely to vocalize stressed nuclear r than their white counterparts. Finally, there is some intra-word intervocalic r loss as in ma’y for marry or Ca’ol for Carol. These cases of intervocalic, intra-word absence are not consistent and appear to be lexically based. Hackert (2004) notes that even though most Bahamian varieties are non-rhotic, some speakers now perceive r-full pronunciations as standard because of the influence of the American media. It may well be that this influence will eventually lead to a more rhotic variety, if this trend has not started already among some younger speakers.

Afro-Bahamians also vocalize postvocalic l in items such as steal and well, as do AAVE speakers, but Anglo-Bahamians tend to use an alveolar or “light” l regardless of phonetic environment, setting them apart from varieties such as American English.

In syllable-coda and intervocalic position, voiced sibilants may be devoiced in Anglo-Bahamian English. Thus, items like buzz and booze may be produced with a final [s] and easy and lazy may be produced with a voiceless sibilants, as ea[s]y la[s]y, respectively, and measure and treasure may be produced as mea [ʃ] ure and tread [ʃ] ure, respectively. Although many varieties of English have partial devoicing of obstruents in syllable-coda position, the final sibilant in Bahamian English may be fully voiceless. Furthermore, this devoicing even may apply to segments that are followed by a voiced segment, as in hu[s]band for husband and bu[s]iness for business. Although this pattern is quite prominent for Anglo speakers, it is not as extensive among Afro-Bahamians.

Older speakers in more remote areas of the islands may sometimes use [sr] for [θr] clusters, so that three and through may be pronounced as [sri] and [sru], respectively. However, this production is somewhat idiosyncratic; some speakers use it predominantly while others do not use it at all.

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يطلق باقة من النشاطات الرقمية الخاصة بشهر المحرم

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تختتم السلسلة الأولى لمشروع المحاضرات القرآنية العاشورائية في بابل

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تسلّم راية العزاء إلى تجمّع مواكب محافظة الديوانية

قسم الشؤون الفكرية يواصل إقامة المجالس الحسينية ضمن سلسلة (بيوت النعيم)

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

تناول الجبن.. مفيد للجسم أم خطر يهدد صحتك؟

طبيبة أسنان تحذر.. لا تتجاهل هذه العلامة بعد التنظيف

يجب أن تأكل المزيد من الشمام هذا الصيف.. إليك السبب ؟

تأثير صحي كبير.. كم بيضة يجب أن تتناول يوميا؟

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

أداء خلايا البيروفسكايت الشمسية تحت الماء قد يزيد كفاءة تحويل الكهرباء

مسافة الأمان: أساس القيادة الآمنة وتجنب الحوادث

هل القيادة السريعة تعني استهلاك اكثر للوقود؟

لماذا يعتبر كوكب المريخ غير صالح للحياة؟

المزيد