The pronunciation of English in Shanghai and the city’s image as a global metropolis

What is it about?

This study investigates the pronunciation of English among young speakers in Shanghai and examines how local phonological patterns relate to the city’s image as a global metropolis. Twenty university students (10 males, 10 females) read a short passage and participated in brief interviews. Acoustic and auditory analyses identified nine recurring features: variable rhoticity, retention of word-final /t, d/, predominant realisation of voiceless and voiced TH as [θ] and [ð], occasional L-deletion after back vowels, partial distinction of long and short vowels, limited vowel reduction, absence of epenthetic final vowels, occasional substitution of /ʒ/ with [ɹ], and sporadic replacement of /v/ with [w]. The findings suggest that English in Shanghai reflects global influences and local phonological tendencies, forming part of an evolving regional norm rather than deviation from native standards. In this regard, Shanghai English contributes to the pluralisation of English in Asia and indexes the city’s modern, cosmopolitan identity.

Featured Image

Photo by ZENG YILI on Unsplash

Photo by ZENG YILI on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Aside from general studies on Chinese English pronunciation and regional research from provinces such as Yunnan and Guangxi, there has been no systematic analysis of the English pronunciation of speakers from Shanghai, a coastal city in eastern China. To address this gap, the present study examines whether the English spoken by people in Shanghai is intelligible and how it relates to Shanghai’s image as a global metropolis.

Perspectives