Thai speakers of English in different language communities: A phonological comparison of word-initial stops

Kate Wray

MA student, California State University, Chico

This study documents and analyzes the speech production of English stops spoken by Thai Speakers of English in the US and Thailand. The Voice Onset Time (VOT) values of word-initial stops produced by a Thai group living in California and by a group in Thailand were compared and contrasted with a Native English-Speaking group. The two aims of the study were: 1) to understand what happened when Thai speakers, who have a 3-way phonemic stop contrast in their first language, are acquiring English as a second language, which has a 2-way phonemic stop contrast; and 2) to learn if there was a difference in production of English stops by Thai speakers in different communities in the US and in Thailand. VOT measurements of the word-initial stops showed that both groups produced English /p/ and /t/ like Thai /b/ and /d/. The Thai groups produced English /kH/ and /k/ similarly, while VOT values for English /pH/ and /tH/ varied.