Pronunciation. The native varieties of English generally use stress timed rhythm, i.e., stressed syllables occur after identical intervalsThe native varieties of English generally use stress timed rhythm, i.e., stressed syllables occur after identical intervals. On the other hand, the New Englishes in South Asia (e.g., India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka), Southeast Asia (e.g., Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong), and West Africa (e.g., Nigeria, Ghana) generally use syllable-timed rhythm, i.e., an arrangement of equal numbers of syllables per unit of time. This difference is one of the factors which causes problems in intelligibility. Grammar A number of grammatical features are typical of a variety and of a region. In South Asian English there is a tendency to form interrogative questions without changing the position of the subject and auxiliary items (e.g., What you would like to eat? When you would like to go?). In South Asian and African English isn't it? is used as a universal tag (e.g., He isn't coming, isn't it? You are not going tomorrow, isn't it?). The use of articles and complementation also shows several differences in the new varieties. Lexis The lexical features are of two types. The first type includes those items which are borrowed from the local languages. A small number of such lexical items are shared with British and/or American English (e.g., pundit, nirvana, guru). In local varieties of English, however, such items are used extensively (e.g., in South Asian English janta 'people,' gadl 'train'; in South African English kloof 'ravine, valley,' skorokoro 'jalopy'; and in Singaporean/ Malaysian English makan 'food,' kampong 'a small settlement'). The new Englishes make frequent use of such items in conversation, newspapers, and in creative writing. The second type includes hybridized items, in which local language items are mixed with English to create new words (e.g., lathi charge 'charge with baton,' tiffin carrier (tiffin 'snack,' 'light meal') in South Asian English dunno drums 'a type of drum,' kraal family 'family sharing the same enclosure' in South African English).
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