摘要：This research is largely inspired by the increasing literature chronicling the worldwide emergence of “new
Englishes” (Deyuan and David, 2009:70), particularly their subtype known as “African Englishes”
(Mutonya, 2008:434). Although the variety of English that is spoken in Zimbabwe is clearly a distinct
variation of African English, however it has not received significant attention from both theoretical and
applied linguists. In this context, this study seeks to critically examine the vocalic characteristics of the
variety of English that is predominantly spoken as a second language (L2) in Zimbabwe. In this regard,
this exploratory research adopts a highly observational data collection method and qualitative data
analysis approach in order to insightfully investigate the influence of native Shona phonology on the
pronunciation of English vowels by Shona-English bilinguals. The main focus of this research is to
analyze how native English simple monophthongs and complex vowels such as long monophthongs,
diphthongs and triphthongs are pronounced by Shona-English bilinguals. This study shows that first
language (L1) Shona speakers employ simplifying strategies such as monophthongization of diphthongs
and glide epenthesis in order to reduce English diphthongs and triphthongs to five simple monophthongs
corresponding to [i, e, a, o, u]. Furthermore, this investigation argues that these phonological processes
are unconsciously employed by L1 Shona speakers in their spoken English in order to “build Africannes
into the English language” (Chisanga and Kamwangamalu, 1997:10) and that this underpins its legitimate
ownership by Zimbabweans.
