Task-related effects in the prosody of Spanish heritage speakers and long-term immigrants

Abstract

We compare the extent to which Spanish heritage speakers and long-term immigrants in the United States differ in their intonation of broad focus declaratives, and propose that the between-group variability is motivated by the specific language learning/literacy conditions of each group. Results from a phonetically balanced reading task and an elicited narrative revealed significant differences between the two groups in their realization of pitch accents in read speech but not in the narratives. These results suggest that less-controlled tasks are more representative of the bilingual status of adult bilinguals, and that metalinguistic tasks, such as reading aloud, should be implemented with caution, crucially among Spanish heritage speakers who are in a semi-diglossic situation in the United States.

Foreign Accent in Pre- and Primary School Heritage Bilinguals

“…While Benmamoun et al (2013, p. 140) observed that research on HSs' phonology has "barely scratched the surface", numerous publications on adult bilingual HSs have since been published (on segmental properties, see, e.g., Amengual 2012Amengual , 2016Nagy and Kochetov 2013;Mayr and Siddika 2018;Elias et al 2017;Kissling 2018;Einfeldt et al 2019; on supra-segmental properties, see, e.g., Chang et al 2011;Colantoni et al 2016;Henriksen 2016;Kim 2019Kim , 2020. Studies on global 1 accent that have looked at both native languages of adult HSs have shown that HSs are most often perceived as foreign speakers when speaking their HL but as native when speaking their ML (Kupisch et al 2014(Kupisch et al , 2020Lloyd-Smith et al 2020).…”

The missing link in Spanish heritage trill production

“…For instance, Einfeldt et al (2019) found that heritage speakers of Italian maintain the contrast between singleton and geminate consonants. However, in other areas they show variability that is different from monolingual norms (Alvord & Rogers, 2014;Amengual, 2016;Colantoni et al, 2016;Godson, 2004;Henriksen, 2015;Robles-Puente, 2014;Ronquest, 2012Ronquest, , 2013. Studies have found that heritage language vowel space either shows assimilation to or dissimilation from that of the majority language (Cummings Ruiz, 2019;Ronquest, 2012Ronquest, , 2013 and that heritage language stop productions are affected by factors such as cognate status (Amengual, 2012), code-switching (Łyskawa, Maddeaux, Melara & Nagy, 2016), and speaker generation (Mayr & Siddika, 2018;Nodari, Celata & Nagy, 2019).…”

“…Compared to this, less research has been done in phonological domains, most likely given that positive effects of early exposure have been attested on heritage language pronunciation (Au, Knightly, Jun & Oh, 2002;Knightly, Jun, Oh & Au, 2003). Nevertheless, recent studies on heritage language phonology discuss the existence of a "heritage accent" (Au, Oh, Knightly, Jun & Romo, 2008;Lloyd-Smith, Einfeldt & Kupisch, 2020;Stangen, Kupisch, Proietti Ergün & Zielke, 2015) and found deviations from monolingual norms at both segmental (Amengual, 2012(Amengual, , 2016Elias, McKinnon & Milla-Muñoz, 2017;Godson, 2004;Kissling, 2018;Ronquest, 2013;Willis, 2005) and suprasegmental levels (Chang, Yao, Haynes & Rhodes, 2011;Colantoni, Cuza & Mazzaro, 2016;Henriksen, 2016;Kim, 2019;Kim, 2020). For instance, Au et al (2008) found that Spanish heritage speakers, regardless of whether they regularly used Spanish during childhood, sounded more native-like than late L2 learners, but when compared with non-heritage native speakers, their speech was perceived to have a stronger foreign accent.…”

Interpreting Accent Marks as Hiatus Indicators: Syllabification Intuitions for io Sequences in US Spanish

“…Until recently, it was assumed that HSS' phonology matched that of monolinguals. A growing body of research, however, shows quantifiable differences between bilingual and monolingual speakers in various aspects of pronunciation (Amengual, 2012;Colantoni, Cuza, & Mazzaro, 2016;Knightly, Jun, & Au 2003;Rao, 2015;Robles-Puente, 2014; among others). These differences seem to be largely the result of transfer from the dominant second language onto the heritage language.…”