Cover not available

Article In: Journal of Second Language Pronunciation: Online-First Articles

Acoustic correlates of diphthong and hiatus production in L2 Spanish learners

ORCiD logo with link | Indiana University Bloomington
 | The Pennsylvania State University
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
English and Spanish differ in syllable formation. One difference is that certain vocoid sequences in English are produced in hiatus, whereas the same vocoid sequences in Spanish are produced either as a diphthong or as a hiatus, subject to phonological conditioning. This difference may contribute to crosslinguistic interference in first language (L1) English speakers producing vocoid sequences in second language (L2) Spanish. This interference may increase in cognates (e.g., piano). This paper analyses diphthong/hiatus production in L2 Spanish, to explore acoustic contrast of diphthong/hiatus and test whether production is modulated by L2 proficiency and cognate status. L2 learners and L1 speakers read Spanish words containing the sequence /ia/. Duration and formant trajectories were analyzed. L1 Spanish speakers produced the expected diphthong/hiatus contrast, but L2 learners did not. Learners’ production was modulated by proficiency, starting with a diphthong bias, instead of the expected hiatus bias. There were no strong cognate effects.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Diphthong and hiatus in L1 Spanish
    • 2.2Contrastive analysis of English and Spanish syllable structure
    • 2.3This study
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Participants
      • 3.1.1L2ers
      • 3.1.2L1 speakers
    • 3.2Materials
      • 3.2.1Round 1
      • 3.2.2Round 2
    • 3.3Tasks and procedure
  • 4.Data analysis and results
    • 4.1Duration
      • 4.1.1L1 speakers vs. L2ers
      • 4.1.2L2ers’ proficiency
    • 4.2Formant trajectories
  • 5.General discussion
    • 5.1Diphthong/hiatus in L2 Spanish
    • 5.2Cognate effects
    • 5.3Proficiency effects
    • 5.4Limitations
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • CRediT authorship contribution statement
  • Statements and declarations
    • Ethical considerations
    • Consent to participate
    • Declaration of conflicting interest
    • Data availability
  • Notes
  • Author queries
  • Sources
References (70)
Sources
Aguilar, L. (1999). Hiatus and diphthong: Acoustic cues and speech situation differences. Speech Communication, 281, 57–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2024). Descripción fonética de las paravocales, in J. Gil Fernández and J. Llisterri Boix (Eds.), Fonética y fonología descriptivas de la lengua española. Madrid: Editorial CSIC/Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Amengual, M. (2011). Interlingual influence in bilingual speech: Cognate status effect in a continuum of bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(3), 517–530. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Cross-Linguistic Influence in the Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Evidence of Cognate Effects in the Phonetic Production and Processing of a Vowel Contrast. Frontiers in Psychology, 71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Archibald, J. (2024). Phonology in Multilingual Grammars: Representational Complexity and Linguistic Interfaces. Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ball, M. J., & Muller, N. (2005). Phonetics for Communication Disorders. Lawrence Earlbaum, Mahwah, NJ and London.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barr, D. J., Levy, R., Scheepers, C., & Tily, H. J. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 681, 255–278. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, D., Maechler, M., Bolker, B., & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting Linear Mixed-Effects Models Using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Best, C. T., & Tyler, M. D. (2007). Nonnative and second-language speech perception: Commonalities and complementarities. In O.-S. Bohn & M. J. Munro (Eds.), Language Learning & Language Teaching (Vol. 171, pp. 13–34). John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul & Weenink, David. (2017). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6.4.18. Retrieved July 31, 2025, from [URL]
Brown, E. (2014). The role of discourse context frequency in phonological variation: A usage-based approach to bilingual speech production. International Journal of Bilingualism, 19(4), 387–406. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brown, E. L., & Amengual, M. (2015). Fine-grained and probabilistic cross-linguistic influence in the pronunciation of cognates: Evidence from corpus-based spontaneous conversation and experimentally elicited data. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 8(1), 59–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cabré, T. & Prieto, P. (2007). Exceptional hiatuses in Spanish. In Martínez-Gil, F. & Colina, S. (Eds.). Optimality-Theoretic Studies in Spanish Phonology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 205–238.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Campos-Astorkiza, R. (2011). The phonemes of Spanish. In: Hualde, J., Olarrea, A., & O’Rourke, E. (Eds.). The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics. UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 89–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, C. (2019). Language change and linguistic inquiry in a world of multicompetence: Sustained phonetic drift and its implications for behavioral linguistic research. Journal of Phonetics, 741, 96–113. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chitoran, I., & Hualde, J. I. (2007). From hiatus to diphthong: The evolution of vowel sequences in Romance. Phonology, 241, 37–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colantoni, L. (2024). La variación en las paravocales. In J. Gil & J. Llisterri (Eds.), Fonética y fonología descriptivas de la lengua española (Vol. I1, pp. 312–328). Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colantoni, L., & Limanni, A. (2010). Where are hiatuses left? A comparative study of vocalic sequences in Argentine Spanish. In Arregi, K., Fagyal, Z., & Montrul, S. A. (Eds.) Romance Linguistics 2008: Interactions in Romance. Selected papers from the 38th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. Urbana-Champaign, 23–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Colina, S. (2006). Optimality-theoretic advances in our understanding of Spanish syllable structure. In F. Martínez-Gil & S. Colina (Eds.), Optimality-theoretic studies in Spanish phonology (pp. 172–204). John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2024). Descripción fonológica de las paravocales. In J. Gil & J. Llisterri (Eds.), Fonética y fonología descriptivas de la lengua española (Vol. I1, pp. 329–346). Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davidson, L. (2011). Phonetic and Phonological Factors in the Second Language Production of Phonemes and Phonotactics. Language and Linguistics Compass, 5(3), 126–139. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davidson, L. & Erker, D. (2014). Hiatus resolution in American English: The case against glide insertion. Linguistic Society of America 90(2), 482–514. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Davis, S., & Hammond, M. (1995). On the status of onglides in American English. Phonology 12(2), pp. 159–182. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Leeuw, E. (2019). Native speech plasticity in the German-English late bilingual Stefanie Graf: A longitudinal study over four decades. Journal of Phonetics, 731, 24–39. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Leeuw, E., & Celata, C. (2019). Plasticity of native phonetic and phonological domains in the context of bilingualism. Journal of Phonetics, 751, 88–93. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Leeuw, E., Stockall, L., Lazaridou-Chatzigoga, D., & Gorba Masip, C. (2021). Illusory vowels in Spanish-English sequential bilinguals: Evidence that accurate L2 perception is neither necessary nor sufficient for accurate L2 production. Second Language Research, 27(4), 587–618. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dijkstra, T., van Hell, J. G., & Brenders, P. (2015). Sentence context effects in bilingual word recognition: Cognate status, sentence language, and semantic constraint. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 18(4), 597–613. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Face, T. L., & Alvord, S. M. (2004). Lexical and acoustic factors in the perception of the Spanish diphthong vs. hiatus contrast. Hispania, 87(3), 553–564. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fasiolo, M., Nedellec, R., Goude, Y., & Wood, S. N. (2020). Scalable visualisation methods for modern Generalized Additive Models. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 291, 78–86. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, J. E. (1991). Age of learning affects the authenticity of voice-onset time (VOT) in stop consonants produced in a second language. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 89(1), 395–411. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Issues in Cross-Language Research (pp. 223–277). Baltimore: York Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., & Bohn, O.-S. (2021). The Revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r). In R. Wayland (Ed.), Second Language Speech Learning (1st ed., pp. 3–83). Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, J. E., MacKay, I. R. A., & Meador, D. (1999). Native Italian speakers’ perception and production of English vowels. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 106(5), 2973–2987. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garrido, M. (2007). Diphthongization of mid/low vowel sequences in Colombian Spanish. In J. Holmquist et al. (Eds.). Selected Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics (pp. 30–37). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosjean, F. (1989). Neurolinguists beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. Brain and Language, 361, 3–15. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2001). The bilingual’s language modes. In Nicol, J. (Ed.). One Mind, Two Languages: Bilingual Language Processing (pp. 1–22). Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoshino, N., & Kroll, J. F. (2008). Cognate effects in picture naming: Does cross-language activation survive a change of script? Cognition, 106(1), 501–511. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, J. I. (1991). On Spanish syllabification. In: H. Campos and F. Matínez-Gil (eds.). Current Studies in Spanish Linguistics. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, pp. 475–493.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). Quasi-phonemic contrasts in Spanish. WCCFL 23 Proceedings. MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Los sonidos del español. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, J. I., & Prieto, M. (2002). On the diphthong/hiatus contrast in Spanish: some experimental results. Linguistics, 40(2), 217–234. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hualde, J. I., Simonet, M., & Torreira, F. (2008). Postlexical contraction of nonhigh vowels in Spanish. Lingua, 118(12), 1906–1925. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jacobs, A., Fricke, M., & Kroll, J. F. (2015). Cross-language activation begins during speech planning and extends into second language speech. Language Learning, 66(2), 324–353. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Johns, Michael A., and Paola E. Dussias. “Comparing Single-Word Insertions and Multi-Word Alternations in Bilingual Speech: Insights from Pupillometry.” Languages 7, no. 4, 2022, 267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kilpatrick, C. D., & Pierce, L. M. (2014). Focused instruction in Spanish syllabification. Foreign Language Annals 47(2), 286–299. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kim, K., & Kochetov, A. (2011). Phonology and phonetics of epenthetic vowels in loanwords: Experimental evidence from Korean. Lingua, 1211, 511–532. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuznetsova, A., Brockhoff, P. B., & Christensen, R. H. B. (2017). lmerTest Package: Tests in Linear Mixed Effects Models. Journal of Statistical Software, 82(13), 1–26. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lord, G. (2005). (How) can we teach foreign language pronunciation? On the effects of a Spanish phonetics course. Hispania, 88(3), 557–567. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacLeod, B. (2012). Investigating L2 acquisition of Spanish vocalic sequences. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 5(1), 103–148. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mareková, L., & Beňuš, Š. (2025). Speech fluency production and perception in L1 (Slovak) and L2 (English) Read Speech. Language and Speech, 68(1), 36–62. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martínez Gil, F. (2024). Descripción fonológica de las vocales: Articulación, tipología y variación alofónica. In J. Gil Fernández and J. Llisterri Boix (Eds.), Fonética y fonología descriptivas de la lengua española (Vol. I1, pp. 193–225). Georgetown University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nomura, J., & Ishikawa, K. (2018). Effects of first language processes and representations on second language perception: The case of vowel epenthesis by Japanese speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(1), 69–87. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Odlin, T. (1989). Language Transfer: Cross-linguistic Influence in Language Learning. New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qian, D. & Lin, L. (2019). The relationship between vocabulary knowledge and language proficiency. In S. Webb (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Vocabulary Studies (pp. 66–80). London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qualtrics. (2005–2019). Qualtrics. Provo, Utah. Retrieved September 23, 2025, from [URL]
Quilis, A. (1993). Tratado de fonética y fonología españolas. Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team (2013). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Retrieved September 23, 2025, from [URL]
Real Academia Española: Banco de datos (CREA Anotado). Corpus de referencia del español actual (CREA). Retrieved September 23, 2025, from [URL]
Reubold, U., Ditewig, S., Mayr, R., & Mennen, I. (2021). The effect of dual language activation on L2-induced changes in L1 speech within a code-switched paradigm. Languages, 6(3), 114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selinker, L. (1972). Interlanguage. IRAL: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 101, 209–231. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simonet, M., & Tiegs, J. (2026). External vowel sandhi in Castilian Spanish: An acoustic study of vowel sequences across word junctures. Language and Speech: 00238309261419126. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sóskuthy, M. (2021). Evaluating generalised additive mixed modelling strategies for dynamic speech analysis. Journal of Phonetics, 841, 10107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
SR Research Experiment Builder 2.2.1 [Computer software]. (2020). Mississauga, Ontario, Canada: SR Research Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Leussen, J.-W., & Escudero, P. (2015). Learning to perceive and recognize a second language: The L2LP model revised. Frontiers in Psychology, 61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Rij, J., Wieling, M., Baayen, R., & van Rijn, H. (2022). Itsadug: Interpreting time series and autocorrelated data using GAMMs [R package]. V. 2.4.1. Retrieved July 31, 2025 from [URL]
Wieling, M. (2018). Analyzing dynamic phonetic data using generalized additive mixed modeling: A tutorial focusing on articulatory differences between L1 and L2 speakers of English. Journal of Phonetics, 701, 86–116. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wood, S. N. (2011). Fast stable restricted maximum likelihood and marginal likelihood estimation of semiparametric generalized linear models. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B (Statistical Methodology), 731, 3–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Generalized Additive Models: An Introduction with R. (2nd ed.). Boca Raton: Chapman and Hall/CRC. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zárate-Sández, G. (2011). Speakers’ intuitions about L2 syllable structure: Diphthong vs. hiatus resolution in Spanish by English-speaking learners. In Selected Proceedings of the 2009 Second Language Research Forum. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 164–181.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zareva, A., Schwanenflugel, P., & Nikolova, Y. (2005). Relationship between lexical competence and language proficiency: Variable Sensitivity. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27(4), 567–595. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue