East and Southern African English accents

This paper discusses English pronunciation features in the anglophone countries of East and Southern Africa. The focus is on the restructuring of the STRUT vowel to /a/, /i/ and /ε/ epenthesis, and short tone groups. More importantly, the features which associate with some countries or groups of countries are shown. For example, rhoticity is a feature of Sudanese and Somalian Englishes; the restructuring of the NURSE vowel to /a/ across the board applies to Kenyan and Ugandan Englishes; L‐Vocalisation is associated with Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia; the systematic rendering of the NURSE vowel as /ε/ is a feature of Southern African English covering Zimbabwe and the other countries to the south; Sudan shares the restructuring of the TRAP vowel to /ε/ with Southern Africa. The paper offers a contribution to the linguistic atlas of the region examined which, in many respects, drastically differs from previous assumptions. For example, it shows more exhaustively in what aspects East African English pronunciation differs from Southern African English, indicates the geographical demarcation between the two accents, and clearly defines the transition zone.