Babkina, V. (2018). Phonological interference of mother tongue over the English

participants pronounced these words as /əstʌˈdistikəl əˈstʌdis /. The 
accepted pronunciation of these words: /stəˈtistikəl ˈstʌdiz /. 
Example 2. This behavior can make it less appealing to their 
stakeholders
.
The sound /ə/ is added to the beginning of the word. The 
participant pronounced the word as /əˈsteik ˌholdə/. The standard 
pronunciation of this word is /ˈsteik ˌhəuldə/. 
Case 4 of phonological interference demonstrates the tendency of 
Spanish speaking learners of English to add the neutral sound /ə/ at the 
beginning of the words that start with the mentioned consonant clusters, 
for instance, in such words as 
speak, swim, steal, smoke, slim, skate, 
snow,
and so on. As Stanley Whitley stated (2002), the “Epenthesis rule” 
is applied here. Spanish inserts /e/ in front of an initial sC (cluster of s 
plus consonant)
90
. We can observe it in such Spanish words as 
Español, 
estomago, eslovaco, escoba, Esmeralda, estupendo, espalda, esquí
and 
so on. 
 
Hence, the sound /ə/ is added to the beginning of each English 
89
Stanley Whitley, M. (2002). Ibid. p. 47.
90
Stanley Whitley, M. (2002). Ibid. p. 42.

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60 
word that contains these consonant clusters. Excessive adding of the 
neutral sound during oral discourse can cause confusion to a listener.

Case 5. Replacing the palatal semi-vowel / glide /j/ with 
palato-
alveolar fricative /ʒ/ or palato-alveolar affricate /dʒ/ in utterance/word -
initial position. 
Example 1. Yellow colour is used by Inca Cola to represent Peru.

The word is pronounced as /ˈdʒeləu/. The standard pronunciation of 
the word is /ˈjeləu/.
Example 2. It was a small bank but within the years it started to 
grow.

The word is pronounced as / ˈdʒeəs/ and the standard pronunciation 
is / ˈ jeəz/. 
Case 5 demonstrates how the voiced palatal semi-vowel /j/ or glide 
is replaced with the Spanish voiced palatal fricative /ʝ/. The sound /ʝ/ in 
Spanish has different allophones depending on the linguistic 
environment, and the sound /dʒ/ is among them. To the native speaker it 
resembles the phoneme /dʒ/ or sometimes /ʒ/. According to the 
phonological rule “Glide strengthening” (Stanley Whitley 2002:44) that 
is applied in the Spanish language, “when beginning a syllable, Spanish 
glides are pronounced with greater articulatory tension and friction in 
most regions
91
”.
In some countries of Latin America the sound /j/ in a word or 
utterance-initial position tends to be strengthened and transforms into the 
sound /ʝ/. Stanley Whitley (2002:45): “The friction or rehilamiento in /j/ 
varies from light to heavy. A few dialects have none; their /j/ is a weak 
glide in all positions… 
92
”. Glide strengthening may depend on a dialect.
As for the Peruvian learners of English, we can notice that in an 
utterance/word-initial position the strengthening of the discussed 
phoneme takes place. This causes unintelligibility and leads to 
91
Stanley Whitley, M. (2002). Ibid. p. 44.
92
Stanley Whitley, M. (2002). Ibid. p. 45.

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61 
misunderstanding during the process of communication. So, 
yellow
can 
become 
jello, years 
can become
 gears, use 
becomes 
juice 
and so on. 

Case 6. Replacing the palato-alveolar affricate /dʒ/ with palato-
alveolar fricative /ʒ/. 
Example 1. It is divided into two stages.
The word was pronounced by a participant as /steiʒəs/. The 
standard pronunciation of this word is / ˈsteidʒəz/. 
Example 2. They use information about approximate age of people 
who consume their products.
The word 
age 
was pronounced as /eiʒ/. The accepted pronunciation 
of this word is /eidʒ/. 
Example 3. He is in charge of the development and franchising 
department.