Voice onset time production in Ecuadorian Spanish, Quichua, and Media Lengua

Abstract

In Ecuador there exists a dynamic language contact continuum between Urban Spanish and Rural Quichua. This study explores the effects of competing phonologies with an analysis of voice onset time (VOT) production in and across three varieties of Ecuadorian highland Spanish, Quichua, and Media Lengua. Media Lengua is a mixed language that contains Quichua systemic elements and a lexicon of Spanish origin. Because of this lexical-grammatical split, Media Lengua is considered the most central point along the language continuum. Native Quichua phonology has a single series of voiceless stops (/p/, /t/, and /k/), while Spanish shows a clear voicing contrast between stops in the same series. This study makes use of nearly 8,000 measurements from 69 participants to (i) document VOT production in the aforementioned language varieties and (ii) analyse the effects of borrowings on VOT. Results based on mixed effects models and multidimensional scaling suggest that the voicing contrast has entered both Media Lengua and Quichua through Spanish lexical borrowings. However, the VOT values of voiced stops in Media Lengua align with those of Rural and L2 Spanish while Quichua shows significantly longer prevoicing values, suggesting some degree of overshoot.

A multi-method approach to correlate identification in acoustic data: The case of Media Lengua

“…However, like the corner vowels previously described, the mid-vowel and high-vowel categories also exhibit substantial overlap. It was later confirmed by Stewart (2018a) that Media Lengua speakers take advantage of this small albeit important distance between categories to identify differences between Spanish origin mid and high vowels. Stewart's results (Figure 2B) were based on a 10-step, two-alternative force choice (2AFC) identification task experiment using minimal pairs as stimuli, which contained modified F1, F2, F3, pitch, duration, and intensity values.…”

“…However, while the lexicon and/or morphosyntax of these languages show clear divisions, acoustic studies on mixed language phonologies (see e.g., Buchan, 2012;Bundgaard-Nielsen & O'Shannessy, 2019;Hendy, 2019;Jones & Meakins, 2013;Jones, Meakins, & Buchan, 2011;Jones, Meakins, & Mauwiyath, 2012;Meakins & Stewart, in press;Onosson & Stewart, in press;Rosen, 2006Rosen, , 2007Rosen, Stewart, Pesch-Johnson, & Sammons, 2019;Rosen, Stewart, & Sammons, 2020;Stewart, 2014Stewart, , 2015aStewart, , 2015bStewart, , 2018aStewart, , 2018bStewart, , 2020Stewart & Meakins, 2021;Stewart, Meakins, Algy, Ennever, & Joshua, 2020;Stewart, Meakins, Algy, & Joshua, 2018) suggest a heavy influence from the original L1 of the speech community, which may be related to late acquisition of the L2 by the originators (see Stewart & Meakins, 2021, for details on this hypothesis). This influence, however, is not absolute and phonological elements from the L2 source language are present in most mixed languages, though in unexpected ways.…”

Fickle fricatives: Fricative and stop perception in Gurindji Kriol, Roper Kriol, and Standard Australian English

“…If we look at their arrangements, elements that are transferred from the introduced language appear to organise in a similar fashion to the way a mid or late bilingual acquires their second language. Here, contrastive sounds may (1) collapse into a single non-contrastive sound (see the Gurindji Kriol stop system described in Stewart et al, 2018), (2) function with a substantial degree of overlap (see Media Lengua, Stewart, 2014Stewart, , 2018b, and Michif (Rosen et al, 2016, for vowel systems), or (3) overshoot may occur (see the Media Lengua stop system described in Stewart 2015Stewart , 2018a, in addition to other arrangements. This type of acquisition, in which sounds may not be fully acquired to the same degree as they exist in the introduced language, may affect the degree of saliency in a contrast.…”

“…For mixed languages, their formation occurs in situations of advanced bilingualism and often involves the wholesale exchange of entire word classes or divisions between grammatical elements [see Meakins (2013) and Meakins and Stewart (2019) for an overview of mixed languages]. The sheer number of lexical borrowings coupled with the mastery of both languages often cause sounds that would otherwise assimilate or remain distinct under more "conventional" forms of language contact, such as borrowing or codeswitching, to rearrange in non-intuitive ways (see Jones and Meakins, 2013;Jones et al, 2011;Rosen et al, 2016;Stewart, 2014Stewart, , 2015Stewart, , 2018a.…”

The contribution of grammar and lexicon to language switching costs: Examining contact-induced languages and their implications for theories of language representation

“…In highland Ecuador, about 20km outside of Otavalo, Imbabura Province (Figure 2), speakers in the villages of Pijal, Angla and Casco Valenzuela are multilingual in Spanish, Quichua and an intertwined language, Media Lengua (Gómez Rendón, 2008; Stewart, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015a, b, 2017, 2018; Lipski, 2016b, 2017; Deibel, 2019; Deibel, unpublished manuscript). This lexicon-grammar mixed language retains nearly all Quichua morphosyntax while over 90% of its vocabulary has been systematically replaced with Spanish lexical roots (Muysken, 1981).…”