Zulu English is a variety of English, spoken almost exclusively in South Africa among the Zulu. The variety is heavily influenced by the phonology and lexicon of the Zulu language.
Phonology
The met–mate merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English where and are both pronounced . As a result, the words "met" and "mate" are homophonous as . The cot–coat merger is a phenomenon occurring for some speakers of Zulu English where the phonemes and are not distinguished. Confusion between and also occurs: it is reported that is sometimes replaced by , so ship may be pronounced like chip. Devoicing of certain obstruents, particularly .
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