Suprasegmental structure

Two aspects of suprasegmental structure have been examined in some detail. Van Rooy (2000) presents an analysis of syllable structure restrictions in the mesolect, and Van der Pas, Wissing and Zonneveld (2000), and Van Rooy (2002) analyze stress placement in the mesolect. Very little is known about the acrolect, and it will therefore not be discussed here.

The Bantu languages generally do not allow consonant clusters in the onsets of syllables, and do not allow syllable codas. BlSAfE is clearly not bound by the syllable structure constraints of the Bantu languages. Van Rooy (2000) indicates that onset clusters in BlSAfE are generally no different from other varieties of SAfE. More recent data analysis suggests that the rhotic phoneme /r/ is under pressure to delete in onset clusters, particularly in spontaneous speech as opposed to read speech. Some simplification occurs in the codas, particularly where more than one obstruent is present in the same coda. In cases such as perfect or eats, a plosive is likely to be deleted. Faithful realization of two underlying obstruents in syllable codas occurs in less than a third of all observed cases, but it is uncertain if other varieties of English in South Africa are not perhaps subject to similar simplification – the relevant comparative data have not been examined to the best of my knowledge.

Previous work on stress in BlSAfE offers very little conclusive analysis or interpretation. Generally, researchers claim that stress in BlSAfE is different from native varieties of SAfE and present examples of such differences. Interpretation is often restricted to the claim that the penultimate lengthening phenomenon of the Bantu languages is transferred to BlSAfE. Van Rooy (2002) examines a small corpus of data from mesolect speakers and concludes that there is indeed a highly systematic system for stress placement in the mesolect BlSAfE. A very salient property is the syllable-timed rhythm of BlSAfE, as opposed to the stress-timed rhythm of most native varieties (Wissing, Gustafson and Coetzee 2000). Consequently, Van Rooy (2002) argues that there is no organization of syllables into metrical feet in BlSAfE. Stress assignment is on the second last syllable, e.g. sevénty, except when the final syllable is superheavy, i.e. it has a tensed vowel (usually a diphthong) and coda consonant, e.g. campáígn or any vowel and a consonant cluster in the coda, e.g. contrást. In such cases, stress is assigned to the final syllable.

In older research, a few relevant observations are made about other aspects of prosodic structure in BlSAfE. Gennrich-de Lisle (1985) claims that tone/information units in BlSAfE are shorter than in native varieties of SAfE; there are consequently more syllables and words that receive semantic stress than in native varieties of SAfE. Furthermore, they identify a general lowering of pitch through the course of a sentence, combined with a weakening of the intensity. No recent work has been done on these properties, and too little is known about the acrolect to judge whether this is also true for the acrolect.