Every language in the world has segmental and suprasegmental features. Segmental features refer to sounds, letters, words, and how they connect to form sentences and paragraphs, including consonants and vowels (i.e., voiced and voiceless sounds). Suprasegmental features relate to speech manner and the speaker’s feeling about the sentences and words they pronounce, including stress, intonation, speed, rhythm, pauses, and pitch frequency. Speech lacking these suprasegmental features is considered robotic and loses its human touch, often called “monotonous” speech.

Let us explain, dear reader, the impact of suprasegmental features on native language pronunciation and their social implications through real-life examples.

When a child acquires their mother tongue (the language of the community they grow up in, their original or first language), they also acquire both segmental and suprasegmental features of that language. When the child learns another language after mastering their mother tongue, the suprasegmental features of the new language (the second language) may be influenced by those of their original language (the first language). For example, if a child’s first language is Hindi and later, at school, they learn English as a second language, the child will speak English influenced by the suprasegmental features of Hindi, pronouncing English with Hindi intonation. This results in Indian English, i.e., English spoken with an Indian accent. This precisely distinguishes native speakers from non-native speakers, as native speakers unconsciously master all segmental and suprasegmental features of their mother tongue (the first language), which reside in the unconscious mind.

Non-native speakers, however, often cannot fully grasp all suprasegmental features of the second language acquired later in life.

Recently, some Egyptian mothers insist their children acquire English, French, or German from infancy, even before speaking their mother tongue (Egyptian colloquial Arabic). This often happens through pre-kindergarten education in international schools that adopt one of these languages as the official first language and require parents to speak to their child in that language. Since the child lives in an Arabic-speaking society, they also acquire Egyptian colloquial Arabic, but it becomes their second language. Thus, an Egyptian child grows up in an Egyptian environment speaking Egyptian colloquial Arabic with an English accent, influenced by the suprasegmental features of their first language (English or other languages mentioned).

This generation raised this way belongs to a particular social class, namely those who can afford international school fees. The speech pattern of this generation (Egyptian colloquial Arabic with an English accent) reflects their social class, intellectual affiliation, educational level, and residential area. Recently, some TV dramas have portrayed this accent, such as the series “Aisha El Dawar,” starring Donia Samir Ghanem.

During my preliminary doctoral studies, I conducted research and a practical experiment to measure the perception of English intonation among Egyptians who speak Egyptian colloquial Arabic. The experiment aimed to verify how well Egyptian listeners, non-native English speakers, perceive and distinguish English tones. The experiment included six English sentences (three declarative and three interrogative) divided into three groups, each with two consecutive sentences carefully selected from a large online database called “English sentences with audio,” created in July 2014. All sentences were pronounced by a native American speaker. The experiment involved only two English tones: low and high pitch. It was designed to identify the main factors Egyptian listeners rely on to distinguish between the two tones in English.

Fifty volunteer listeners participated, all university students or graduates aged 19 to 30, native Arabic speakers, all Egyptians learning English as a second language at school and university. Listeners were asked whether the two sentences in each group had the same intonation or not.

Intonation is a suprasegmental feature resulting from pitch changes during speech, especially at sentence endings. Rising and falling pitch at the end of speech carries different meanings. For example, declarative sentences end with a low tone, imperative sentences with a higher tone, and interrogative sentences with an even higher tone. Results showed listeners could accurately distinguish pairs of sentences with different tones (low and high) better than pairs with similar tones (low-low or high-high).

In conclusion, every language has features that distinguish it from others. Mastering multiple languages is encouraged to broaden horizons and perspectives. However, the spread of hybrid dialects unrelated to any original language is concerning. A person’s language is their identity, culture, and environment, which they should be proud of, preserve, and protect from extinction. Every mother should insist her children learn and master their original language before teaching them other world languages to expand their knowledge. Learning a second language should ideally start at age six. Some countries, like China and Japan, prohibit learning a second language before age eight.