Detailing the Phonetic Environment: A Sociophonetic Study of the London Bengali Community

The present study investigated variability in the production of English by London Bengali adults who speak the Sylheti dialect of Bengali. Speakers had been resident in London for differing lengths of time. They were recorded producing /l/, /r/ and the eleven monophthongal vowels in English. Phonetically trained listeners rated speakers' productions of /l/ and /r/ in terms of manner and place. F1 and F2 formant frequency values, and duration were measured for all monophthongal vowels. The results demonstrated that older speakers (first-generation immigrants) tended to use Sylhetilike variants when speaking English, whilst second-generation speakers tended to use native English-like variants. These findings will be used to inform studies of the role of phonetic input in child language acquisition from the London Bengali community.