HKE Intonation as Indexical Markers of Identities

This article studies the social meaning of intonational variation in Hong Kong English (HKE) and its contribution to sociolinguistic research. In 21st-century, globalised Hong Kong, the local HKE accent, though still stigmatised, can be stylistically manipulated for indexical purposes through its prosody. Adopting a unified, variationist approach, the study examines how intonational variation in HKE from the global accent to the local accent is utilised as a marker of local identity. 36 university students, half HKE speakers and half non-HKE, are invited to perform 4 spontaneous dyad discussion tasks, on HK culture topics and neutral topics. The spontaneous use of local intonation by polycentric speakers with access to both accents is demonstrated to index social meanings such as highlighting their local identity and sounding sarcastic. Non-polycentric speakers, though confined to local intonation only, can switch from the core HKE tones to original Cantonese tones for similar purposes.