Is the “Mediacorp accent” a Singaporean accent? : Phonology of and local attitudes towards the broadcast accent in Singapore

Abstract

Broadcast accents exist in many English-speaking countries, and sound drastically different from the accent of the local speakers. In Singapore, the “Mediacorp accent” is the leading sound of local media. Despite extensive research on Singapore Colloquial English (SCE) and some research on Singapore Standard English (SSE), there are few studies on the broadcast accent in Singapore. This study aims to determine if this Sinagapore Broadcast Accent (SBA) can be considered a Singaporean accent through investigating the phonology of and local attitudes towards SBA, and is the first to examine attitudes towards a local broadcast accent in Singapore and paints a fuller picture of the relationship between English and the English-speaking Singaporean. Through the analysis of phonological features, results showed that SBA mostly uses RP norms but also follows a few GA norms. Moreover, it was found via a matched-guise test that though Singaporeans showed a greater preference for SBA over SSE, they did not identify it as a local accent. Overall, SBA is not Singaporean, but instead a supraregional accent that does not identify with any particular country by design.