Editing Regional accents of English (section)

==Asia==

===India and South Asia===
{{Main|Indian English|Pakistani English|Bangladeshi English|Sri Lankan English|Nepalese English}}

A number of distinct dialects of English are spoken in South Asia. There are many languages spoken in South Asia like [[Nepali language|Nepali]], [[Hindi]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Rajasthani language|Rajasthani]], [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]], [[Balochi language|Balochi]], [[Pashto language|Pashto]], [[Assamese language|Assamese]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Kannada language|Kannada]], [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Odia language|Odia]], [[Maithili Language|Maithili]], [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]], [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Tulu language|Tulu]], [[Urdu]] and many more, creating a variety of accents of English. Accents originating in this part of the world tend to display several distinctive features, including:
* [[timing (linguistics)|syllable-timing]], in which a roughly equal time is allocated to each syllable, akin to the English of Singapore and Malaysia. Elsewhere, English speech timing is based predominantly on stress.
* "sing-song" pitch, somewhat reminiscent of those of [[Welsh English]]
* retroflexion of "t" and "d"

===Philippines===
{{Main|Philippine English}}

Philippine English employs a rhotic accent that originated from the time it was first introduced by Americans during the colonization period in an attempt to replace Spanish as the dominant political language. As there are no /f/ or /v/ sounds in most native languages in the Philippines, [p] is used as an alternative to /f/ as [b] is to /v/. The words "fifty" and "five" are often pronounced as {{not a typo|"pipty"}} and {{not a typo|"pibe"}} by many Filipinos. Similarly, /θ/ is often changed to [t] and /ð/ to [d].<ref>{{cite book |last=Tayao |first=Ma. Lourdes |editor-last1=Bautista |editor-first1=Ma. Lourdes |editor-last2=Bolton |editor-first2=Kingsley |title=Philippine English: Linguistic and Literary |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |date=2008 |pages=157–174 |chapter= A lectal description of the phonological features of Philippine English}}</ref>

"Three" becomes /tri/ while "that" becomes /dat/. This feature is consistent with many other Malayo-Polynesian languages. /z/ is often devoiced to [s], whereas [ʒ] is often devoiced to [ʃ] or affricated to [dʒ], so words like "zoo", "measure", and "beige" may be pronounced [su], [ˈmɛʃoɾ], and [beɪdʒ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Tayao |first=Ma. Lourdes |editor-last1=Bautista |editor-first1=Ma. Lourdes |editor-last2=Bolton |editor-first2=Kingsley |title=Philippine English: Linguistic and Literary |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |date=2008 |pages=157–174 |chapter= A lectal description of the phonological features of Philippine English}}</ref>

Apart from the frequent inability to pronounce certain fricatives (e.g., [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [z], [ʒ]), in reality, there is no single Philippine English accent. This is because native languages influence spoken English in different ways throughout the archipelago. For instance, those from [[Visayas]] usually interchange the sounds /e/ and /i/ as well as /o/ and /u/ because the distinction between those phonemes is not very pronounced in Visayan languages.

People from the northern Philippines may pronounce /r/ as a strong trill instead of a tap, which is more commonly used in the rest of the Philippines, as the trill is a feature of the [[Ilocano language]]. Ilocano people generally pronounce the schwa sound /ə/ better than other Filipinos because they use a similar sound in their native language that is missing from many other Philippine languages.

===Hong Kong===
{{Main|Hong Kong English}}

The accent of English spoken in [[Hong Kong]] follows mainly British, with rather strong influence from [[Cantonese]] on the [[pronunciation]]s of a few consonants and vowels, sentence grammar, and structure.

===Malaysia===
{{Main|Malaysian English}}
{{See also|Manglish}}

Malay is the [[lingua franca]] of [[Malaysia]], a federation of former British colonies and similar dependencies. English is a foreign language with no official status, but it is commonly learnt as a second or third language.

The Malaysian accent appears to be a melding of British, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay influences.

Many Malaysians adopt different accents and usages depending on the situation. For example, an office worker may speak with less colloquialism and with a more British accent on the job than with friends or while out shopping.

*[[timing (linguistics)|Syllable-timing]], where speech is timed according to syllable, akin to the English of the Indian Subcontinent. Elsewhere, speech is usually timed to stress.
* A quick, staccato style, with "puncturing" syllables and well-defined, drawn-out tones
* [[Non-rhotic]]ity, like most varieties of [[English language in England]]. Hence, "caught" and "court" are homophonous as {{IPA|/kɔːt/}} (in actuality, {{IPA|[kɔːʔ]}} or {{IPA|[koːʔ]}}), "can't" rhymes with "aren't", etc.
* The "ay" and "ow" sounds in "raid" and "road" ({{IPA|/eɪ/}} and {{IPA|/oʊ/}}, respectively) are pronounced as [[monophthong]]s, i.e. with no "glide": {{IPA|[red]}} and {{IPA|[rod]}}.
* {{IPA|/θ/}} is pronounced as [t] and {{IPA|/ð/}} as [d]; hence, "thin" is {{IPA|[tɪn]}} and "then" is {{IPA|[dɛn]}}.
* Depending on how colloquial the situation is: many [[discourse particle]]s, or words inserted at the end of sentences that indicate the role of the sentence in discourse and the mood it conveys, like "lah", "leh", "mah", "hor", etc.

===Singapore===
{{Main|Singapore English}}
{{See also|Singlish}}

Singapore is effectively a multilingual nation. The [[Government of Singapore|Singapore government]] recognises four [[official language]]s: English, [[Malay language|Malay]], [[Standard Chinese|Mandarin Chinese]], and [[Tamil language|Tamil]].

Students in primary and secondary schools learning English as the language of instruction also learn a second language called their "Mother Tongue" by the Ministry of Education, where they are taught Mandarin Chinese, Malay, or Tamil. A main point to note is while "Mother Tongue" generally refers to the first language (L1) overseas, in Singapore, it is used by the Ministry of Education to denote the traditional language of one's [[ethnic group]], which sometimes can be their second language (L2).

There are two main types of English spoken in Singapore: [[Standard Singapore English]] and [[Singlish]]. Singlish is more widely spoken than Standard English. It has a very distinctive [[Tone (linguistics)|tone]] and sentence structure, which are both strongly influenced by Malay and the many [[varieties of Chinese]] spoken in the city.

A 2005 census showed that around 30% of Singaporeans speak English as their main language at home.<ref name="singstatch2"/>

There are many foreigners working in Singapore. 36% of the population in Singapore are foreigners, and foreigners make up 50% of the service sector.<ref name="singstat2009"/> Therefore, it is very common to encounter service staff who are not fluent in English. Most of these staff speak Mandarin Chinese. Those who do not speak Mandarin Chinese tend to speak either broken English or Singlish, which they have learnt from the locals.