Data Sets

Brunei

ASEAN

Hong Kong + Taiwanese — HK2 : 2117

S1 = Taiwanese female
S2 = Hong Kong male

Context: S2 is talking about wastage in the United States.

S2 : ... one guy why you need to buy <spel> v h </spel> engine big truck you know. why you know you tow everything everyday. there is nothing to tow. there is nothing you know

S1 : you mean the four wheel drive

S2 : four wheel dri- i mean drive most expensive (.) most you know using a lot of gas

Intended Words : tow

Heard as : throw

Discussion : The pronunciation is completely standard. However, by now S1 is getting used to S2 omitting [r] and [l] from word-inital consonant clusters, so she assumes that [r] is missing from this word. She also assumes that the initial [t] represents a voiceless TH, as that is the common pronunciation of voiceless TH in Southeast Asia. In fact, S2 soes not pronounce voiceless TH like this. He prounounces it as [f] (see, for example, HK2 : 304). So he would actually never pronounce throw as [toʊ].