There are many different English speakers in the UAE which makes it difficult to target a specific dialect spoken here. Due to the overwhelmingly diverse population, it is common for English speakers to use a dialect spoken in the ethnic community they come from. The majority of the UAE population is made up of Arabic and English speakers, but Hindi comes in closely behind the two with many English speakers as well.
Arabic English
Arabic speakers may have a difficult time grasping parts of the English language due to the phonemic differences. The Arabic language has 28 consonants while English has 24 consonants. In addition, the Arabic language consists of 8 vowels/diphthongs while English has 22 (FIS, n.d). English has nearly three times more vowel sounds than Arabic, making it hard for some Arabic speakers to say particular vowels sounds. Issues may come with the difference between [šIp] and [šip] or [bId] and [bæd] (FIS, n.d). The video to the right deals with the pronunciation of the [p] and [b] sound.
Problems in pronunciation may stem from not being able to pronounce the [θ] in [θIn] (FIS, n.d). Other issues may be with differentiating the pronunciation between words with the [f] and [v] sounds (FIS, n.d). There is also a singular present tense in the Arabic language, so it might be difficult for native Arabic speakers to learn when to use the past tense. There is also no verb to be in the present tense and no auxiliary "do" (FIS, n.d). English also tends to have random stress which may be evident in Arabic speakers because they are used to a fixed stress in speech (FIS, n.d). Such qualities may be represented by Arabic speakers in the UAE. It is hard to say for sure because there are many different dialects of Arabic spoken in the UAE and it will vary from person to person depending on the region. However, it can be assumed that some of these features or issues may be seen in Arabic speakers whom English is their second language. |
(Ford, 2016)
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Hindi English
Hindi is a highly phonemic language where each pronunciation is predictable due to the spelling (FIS, n.d). This is different than English because English does not always have spelling that directly correlates with the pronunciation of words. This might cause native Hindi speakers to have trouble pronouncing such sounds as the [θ] sound.
Hindi also has about half as many vowels as English and twice as many consonants. Hindi speakers may have trouble differentiating between vowel sounds in words like [sɛd] and [sæd] (FIS, n.d). In addition, consonant clusters in the beginning or end of words are much more common in English than in Hindi, potentially causing problems pronouncing some words (FIS, n.d).
Unlike English, Hindi has a weak and predictable stress (FIS,n.d). As a result, learners of English may have issues with the irregular stress in words like photograph/ photographer (FIS,n.d). In addition, Hindi speakers often tend to articulate words that have weak stress in English like has, was, and to (FIS, n.d).
Other things that may distinguish Hindi native speakers learning English as a second language is the lack of the auxiliary "do" so they make questions without it (FIS, n.d). A question might be "He has a dog?" or something similar.
Hindi has incorporated many English words into their language. Therefore, it may be helpful for beginners who have knowledge of many words. The only problem with this is that the pronunciation of these words may have slight differences (FIS, n.d). In the video below, a native Hindi speaker will give a list of words that are the same across both languages.
Hindi also has about half as many vowels as English and twice as many consonants. Hindi speakers may have trouble differentiating between vowel sounds in words like [sɛd] and [sæd] (FIS, n.d). In addition, consonant clusters in the beginning or end of words are much more common in English than in Hindi, potentially causing problems pronouncing some words (FIS, n.d).
Unlike English, Hindi has a weak and predictable stress (FIS,n.d). As a result, learners of English may have issues with the irregular stress in words like photograph/ photographer (FIS,n.d). In addition, Hindi speakers often tend to articulate words that have weak stress in English like has, was, and to (FIS, n.d).
Other things that may distinguish Hindi native speakers learning English as a second language is the lack of the auxiliary "do" so they make questions without it (FIS, n.d). A question might be "He has a dog?" or something similar.
Hindi has incorporated many English words into their language. Therefore, it may be helpful for beginners who have knowledge of many words. The only problem with this is that the pronunciation of these words may have slight differences (FIS, n.d). In the video below, a native Hindi speaker will give a list of words that are the same across both languages.
(Mahato, 2012)