Language contact within the speaker: Phonetic variation and crosslinguistic influence

Johnson, Khia A.; Babel, Molly

doi:10.31219/osf.io/jhsfc

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 84 publications

(187 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For example, using single word productions, Cantonese-English bilinguals characterized as Cantonese heritage speakers were more likely to release word-final stops [13]. Conversely, a recent study of the same phenomenon in spontaneous speech found that early Cantonese-English bilinguals were less likely to release final stops in English than non-Cantonese-English bilinguals [20]. These conflicting outcomes simply illustrate the need to examine variation in speech across styles and registers, as this variation has maximum utility for ASR systems and the development of NLP tools for speech and language, given how little is know about how talkers interact with such systems [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound change in spontaneous bilingual speech: A corpus study on the Cantonese n-l merger in Cantonese-English bilinguals

Soo¹,

Johnson²,

Babel³

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In Cantonese and several other Chinese languages, /n/ is merging with /l/. The Cantonese merger appears categorical, with /n/ becoming /l/ word-initially. This project aims to describe the status of /n/ and /l/ in bilingual Cantonese and English speech to better understand individual differences at the interface of crosslinguistic influence and sound change. We examine bilingual speech using the SpiCE corpus, composed of speech from 34 early Cantonese-English bilinguals. Acoustic measures were collected on pre-vocalic nasal and lateral onsets in both languages. If bilinguals maintain separate representations for corresponding segments across languages, smaller differences between /n/ and /l/ are predicted in Cantonese compared to English. Measures of mid-frequency spectral tilt suggest that the /n/ and /l/ contrast is robustly maintained in English, but not Cantonese. The spacing of F2-F1 suggests small differences between Cantonese /n/ and /l/, and robust differences in English. While cross-language categories appear independent, substantial individual differences exist in the data. These data contribute to the understanding of the /n/ and /l/ merger in Cantonese and other Chinese languages, in addition to providing empirical and theoretical insights into crosslinguistic influence in early bilinguals.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound change in spontaneous bilingual speech: A corpus study on the Cantonese n-l merger in Cantonese-English bilinguals

Soo¹,

Johnson²,

Babel³

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Cross-Linguistic Phonetic Variation in Bilingual Speech: Cantonese /n/ > [l] Merger in Early Cantonese–English Bilinguals

Soo,

Babel,

Johnson

2024

Lang Speech

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

/n/ is merging with /l/ in Cantonese, as well as in several other Chinese languages. The Cantonese merger appears categorical, with /n/ becoming /l/ syllable-initially. This project aims to describe /n/ and /l/ in Cantonese and English speech from early Cantonese–English bilinguals to better understand the status of the merger in Cantonese and its potential for cross-linguistic mutual influence. We examine early bilinguals’ ( n = 34) speech using the Speech in Cantonese and English (SpiCE) corpus, focusing on pre-vocalic /n/ and /l/ onsets in both languages. Items were auditorily coded for their perceived category identity, and two acoustic measures anticipated to have the potential to differentiate /n/ and /l/ within and across languages were applied. In English, bilinguals maintained a clear contrast between /n/ and /l/ in the auditory coding and in acoustic measurements. In Cantonese, however, there were higher rates of [l] for /n/ items, in line with the merger, and [n] for /l/ items, indicating hypercorrection of the pattern. Across languages, bilinguals produced language-specific /l/s, but there were no acoustic differences between Cantonese and English /n/. The participation of Cantonese /n/ in a sound change does not appear to compromise English /n/s’ patterning, suggesting that Cantonese and English /n/ are maintained as distinct categories in the minds of early bilinguals.

show abstract

Place uniformity and drift in the Suzhounese fricative and apical vowels

Faytak

2022

Linguistics Vanguard

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Suzhounese exhibits an unusual place anteriority contrast between rounded and unrounded dorso-palatal high front vowels, postalveolar fricative vowels, and apico-alveolar apical vowels. This arrangement is vulnerable to loss under intensifying contact with Standard Mandarin. Using acoustic and tongue ultrasound data, we investigated the phonetic implementation of place in the Suzhounese fricative and apical vowels and the similarity of place targets with the apico-alveolar and alveolo-palatal fricative consonants /s/ and /ɕ/, and the front vowel /i/. Two age cohorts differing in their acquisition history and usage of Standard Mandarin were investigated. The younger cohort, who had earlier and likely more intense exposure to Standard Mandarin, exhibited a subphonemic shift in the fricative vowels toward less anterior, more /i/-like constrictions. Due to this shift, implementation of place targets among vowels and consonants was less uniform for the younger cohort, particularly in acoustic terms, but articulatory target uniformity among the vowels at each place was robust for both cohorts regardless of the degree of shift. We discuss possible contact-based mechanisms for the observed changes, as well as implications of the observed interactions between L1–L2 transfer and L1-internal structural cohesion.

show abstract

Language contact within the speaker: Phonetic variation and crosslinguistic influence

Cited by 4 publications

References 84 publications

Sound change in spontaneous bilingual speech: A corpus study on the Cantonese n-l merger in Cantonese-English bilinguals

Sound change in spontaneous bilingual speech: A corpus study on the Cantonese n-l merger in Cantonese-English bilinguals

Cross-Linguistic Phonetic Variation in Bilingual Speech: Cantonese /n/ > [l] Merger in Early Cantonese–English Bilinguals

Place uniformity and drift in the Suzhounese fricative and apical vowels

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About