The deletion of /t, d/ in Hong Kong English

Abstract

Previous research on /t,d/ deletion, the omission of the final /t/ or /d/ sound in word-final consonant clusters of two or more consonants (e.g. just pronounced as jus), indicates that it is pervasive in many varieties of English, including world Englishes such as Indian English, Singapore English, and Nigerian English. This study examines /t,d/ deletion in Hong Kong English in order to examine whether the finding that it occurs systematically across a wide range of Englishes can be extended to this new English. Conversational data were collected from 36 Hong Kong tertiary students; analysis of the data via both descriptive and inferential statistics found that /t,d/ deletion occurred for all the participants in the study, and was governed by linguistic factors and in particular, grammatical category and following linguistic environment.