Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model of new, post-colonial varieties of English follows a five-phase process: foundation, exonormative stabilization, nativization, endonormative stabilization and differentiation. Hong Kong... [ view full abstract ]
Schneider’s (2007) Dynamic Model of new, post-colonial varieties of English follows a five-phase process: foundation, exonormative stabilization, nativization, endonormative stabilization and differentiation. Hong Kong English (HKE) was considered to be in Phase 3 (nativization), in which the ‘settler’ (STL) and ‘indigenous’ (IDG) populations are increasingly intertwined linguistically, culturally and politically. This assessment was challenged by Evans (2014: 596), who observed that these two strands remain quite separated, due in part to members of the STL strand being more like sojourners than settlers.
The current study presents in-depth case studies of eight children of expatriates, aged between 5 and 19 years, living in Hong Kong. All participants would be considered members of the STL strand in Schneider’s model, but more accurately described as sojourners, in line with Evans’ observations.
Previous studies suggest that parents’ dialects have a weaker effect on children’s dialect acquisition than the dominant variety in their environment and peers do (e.g. Bayard 1995). But previous studies of dialect acquisition have been conducted in places where children have a reasonably coherent dominant community variety. The superdiverse environment of international schools and the wider expatriate community in Hong Kong provides multiple models for them to draw on, including the local HKE variety.
The vowel systems of the eight children, do not show features typical of HKE. Instead, we see patterns more reflective of their parents’ New Zealand English variety, mixed with influences from varieties of North American and British Englishes.
The use of a dialect that differs from both their parents’ and the host country varieties presents innovative linguistic support for the sociological concept of the ‘Third Culture Kid’, in which children growing up in expatriate communities can be seen to be in a culture outside of their parents’ culture and the host country culture.
Schneider, Edgar W. (2007). Postcolonial English: Varieties around the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Evans, Stephen. (2014). The evolutionary dynamics of postcolonial Englishes: A Hong Kong case study. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 18(5): 571-603.
Bayard, Donn. (1995). Peers versus parents: a longitudinal study of rhotic- non-rhotic accommodation in an NZE-speaking child. New Zealand English Newsletter 9:15-22.
