Asymmetrical cross-language phonetic interaction
Phonological implications
Two acoustic studies were carried out with L1 Polish learners of English. One study examined L1 phonetic drift, comparing
learners of L2 English who were undergoing intensive L2 phonetic training with quasi-monolingual Polish speakers. The other study looked at
L2 acquisition, comparing learners at two different levels of proficiency. Unlike most previous studies of Polish-English bilinguals, VOT
data of both voiced and voiceless consonants were analyzed. In both experiments, an asymmetry was observed by which voiced stops were more
susceptible to cross-language phonetic influence (CLI) than voiceless stops. These results build on evidence of a similar asymmetry observed
in a number of other L1–L2 pairings. Predictions of competing phonological models are evaluated with regard to equivalence classification
and phonetic CLI. It is shown that both traditional approaches to the phonological representation of voice contrasts fail to predict the
observed asymmetry. An alternative theory, which predicts the asymmetry, is discussed.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Laryngeal contrasts and bilingual speech – a brief review
- 2.1Findings involving voiceless stops
- 2.2CLI in voiced vs. voiceless stops
- 3.Laryngeal phonology and asymmetrical CLI
- 4.The phonetics of laryngeal contrasts in Polish and English
- 5.Study 1: Asymmetrical L1 phonetic drift in the speech of Polish learners of English
- 5.1Participants
- 5.2Materials and procedure
- 5.3Acoustic and statistical analysis
- 5.4Results
- 5.5Discussion
- 6.Study 2: Asymmetrical achievement in L2 phonological acquisition
- 6.1Participants
- 6.2Materials, procedure and analysis
- 6.3Results
- 6.4Discussion
- 7.General discussion – voicing without [voice]
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
-
References
References
Antoniou, M., Best, C., Tyler, M., & Kroos, K.
(
2010)
Language context elicits native-like stop voicing in early bilinguals’ productions in both L1 and L2.
Journal of Phonetics, 381, 640–653.
Antoniou, M., Best, C., Tyler, M., & Kroos, K.
(
2011)
Inter-language interference in VOT production by L2-dominant bilinguals: a study in phonetic code-switching.
Journal of Phonetics 391, 558–570.
Beckman, J., Jessen, M., & Ringen, C.
(
2013)
Empirical evidence for laryngeal features: Aspirating vs. true voice languages.
Journal of Linguistics, 491, 259–284.
Bennett, W., & Rose, S.
(
2017)
Moro voicelessness dissimilation and binary [voice].
Phonology, 341, 473–505.
Best, C.
(
1995)
A direct realist view of cross-language speech perception. In
W. Strange (Ed.),
Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp. 171–204). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Bless, M.
(
2015)
Interference in Early Acquisition Dutch-English Bilinguals: A Phonetic Examination of Voice Onset Time in Dutch and English Bilabial Plosives. Master’s Thesis, University of Amsterdam.
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D.
(
2017)
Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (version 6.0.29) [Computer program].
[URL], accessed March 2019.
Chang, C. B.
(
2012)
Rapid and multifaceted effects of second-language learning on first-language speech production.
Journal of Phonetics, 401, 249–268.
Chang, C. B.
(
2013)
A novelty effect in the phonetic drift of the native language.
Journal of Phonetics, 411, 520–533.
Chang, C. B.
(
2019)
Phonetic drift. In
M. S. Schmid &
B. Köpke (Eds.),
The Oxford Handbook of Language Attrition (pp. 191–203). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Chomsky, N., & Halle, M.
(
1968)
The Sound Pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.
Chionidou, A., & Nicolaidis, K.
(
2015)
Voice onset time in bilingual Greek-German children.
Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Glasgow, UK.
[URL]
Council of Europe
(
2001)
Common European framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge, U.K.: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
Davidson, L.
(
2016)
Variability in the implementation of voicing in American English obstruents.
Journal of Phonetics, 541, 35–50.
Docherty, G.
(
1992)
The Timing of Voicing in British English Obstruents. Berlin: de Gruyer.
Flege, J.
(
1987)
The production of “new” and “similar” phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification.
Journal of Phonetics 151, 162–177.
Flege, J.
(
1991)
Age of learning affects the authenticity of voice-onset time (VOT) in stop consonants produced in a second language.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 89(1), 395–411.
Flege, J.
(
1995)
Second language speech learning – theory, findings, and problems. In
W. Strange (Ed.),
Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Issues in Cross-Language research (pp. 233–277). Timonium, MD: York Press.
Flege, J., & Eefting, W.
(
1987a)
Cross-langauge switching in stop consonant perception and production by Dutch speakers of English.
Speech Communication, 6(3), 185–202.
Flege, J., & Eefting, W.
(
1987b)
Production and perception of English stops by native Spanish speakers.
Journal of Phonetics, 151, 67–83.
Flege, J., Bohn, O.-S., & Jang, S.
(
1997)
Effects of experience on non-native speakers’ production and perception of English vowels.
Journal of Phonetics, 251, 437–470.
Flege, J., Yeni-Komshian, G., & Liu, H.
(
1999)
Age constraints on second language acquisition.
Journal of Memory and Language, 411, 78–104.
Flege, J., Schirro, C., & MacKay, I.
(
2003)
Interaction between native and second language phonetic subsystems.
Speech Communication, 401, 467–491.
Grosjean, F.
(
2004)
Studying bilinguals: Methodological and conceptual issues.
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11, 131–149.
Hanson, H.
(
2009)
Effects of obstruent consonants on fundamental frequency at vowel onset in English.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 125(1), 425–441.
Helgason, P., & Ringen, C.
(
2008)
Voicing and aspiration in Swedish stops.
Journal of Phonetics 36(4), 607–628.
Herd, W.
(
2017)
Southern stops: Phonation type differences in Mississippi.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 142(4), 2680–2680.
Hunnicutt, L., & Morris, P. A.
(
2016)
Prevoicing and Aspiration in Southern American English.
University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 22(1),
Article 24. Available at:
[URL]
Herd, W., Walden, R., Knight, W., & Alexander, S.
(
2015)
Phonetic drift in a first language dominant environment.
Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics 231.
Honeybone, P.
(
2005)
Diachronic evidence in segmental phonology: The case of obstruent laryngeal specifications. In
M. van Oostendorp &
J. van de Weijer (Eds.),
The internal organization of phonological segments (pp. 319–354). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
IBM Corporation
(
2016)
IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows,
Version 24.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.
Jacewicz, E., Fox, R., & Lyle, S.
(
2009)
Variation in stop consonant voicing in two regional varieties of American English.
Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 391, 313–334.
Kang, Y., George, S., & Soo, R.
(
2016)
Cross-language influence of stop voicing contrast in Heritage Tagalog.
Heritage Language Journal, 13(2), 184–218.
Kartushina, N., & Martin, C. D.
(
2019)
Third-language learning affects bilinguals’ production in both their native languages: A longitudinal study of dynamic changes in L1, L2 and L3 vowel production.
Journal of Phonetics, 771,
article 100920.
Keating, P.
(
1979)
A phonetic study of a voicing contrast in Polish. Ph.D. dissertation, Brown University.
Keating, P., Mikos, M., & Ganong, W.
(
1981)
A cross-language study of range of voice onset time in the perception of initial stop voicing.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 701, 1261–1271.
Kim, S., Kim, J., & Cho, T.
(
2018)
Prosodic-structural modulation of stop voicing contrast along the VOT continuum in trochaic and iambic words in American English.
Journal of Phonetics, 711, 65–80.
Kirby, J., & Ladd, D. R.
(
2016)
Effects of obstruent voicing on vowel f0: evidence from ‘true voicing’ languages.
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 1401, 2400–2411.
Lewandowski, N.
(
2012)
Talent in non-native phonetic convergence. PhD dissertation, University of Stuttgart.
Lisker, L. & Abramson, A.
(
1964)
A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: Acoustical measurements.
Word 201, 384–422.
Maddieson, I.
(
1997)
Phonetic universals. In
W. Hardcastle &
J. Laver (Eds.),
The Handbook of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 619–639). Oxford: Blackwell.
Magloire, J., & Green, K. P.
(
1999)
A cross-language comparison of speaking rate effects on the production of voice onset time in English and Spanish.
Phonetica, 561, 158–185.
Malisz, Z. & Żygis, M.
(
2015)
Voicing in Polish: interactions with lexical stress and focus,
Proceedings of the 18th ICPhS in Glasgow.
Mielke, J.
(
2008)
The emergence of distinctive features. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Moyer, A.
(
1999)
Ultimate attainment in L2 phonology.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 211, 81–108.
Moyer, A.
(
2011)
An investigation of experience in L2 phonology: Does quality matter more than quantity? The Canadian Modern Language Review, 671, 191–216.
Newlin-Łukowicz, L.
(
2014)
From interference to transfer in langauge contact: Variation in voice onset time.
Language Variation and Change, 261, 359–385.
Petrova, O., Plapp, R., Ringen, C. & Szentgyorgyi, S.
(
2006)
Voice and aspiration: Evidence from Russian, Hungarian, German, Swedish, and Turkish.
The Linguistic Review, 231, 1–35.
Piske, T., MacKay, I. & Flege, J.
(
2001)
Factors affecting degree of foreign accent in an L2: a review.
Journal of Phonetics 291, 191–215.
Sancier, M. & Fowler, C.
(
1997)
Gestural drift in a bilingual speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and English.
Journal of Phonetics, 251, 421–437.
Schwartz, G.
(
2016)
On the evolution of prosodic boundaries – parameter settings for Polish and English.
Lingua, 1711, 37–74.
Schwartz, G.
(
2017)
Formalizing modulation and the emergence of phonological heads.
Glossa – a journal of general linguistics, 2(1), 1–20.
Schwartz, G. & Arndt, D.
(
2018)
Laryngeal Realism vs. Modulation Theory – evidence from VOT discrimination in Polish.
Language Sciences, 691, 98–112.
Schwartz, G. & Dzierla, J.
(
2017)
Pre-voicing suppression in the speech of Polish learners of English. Paper presented at the 3rd Approaches to Phonetics and Phonology (APAP) conference. Lublin, Poland, June 2017.
Schwartz, G., Wojtkowiak, E., & Brzoza, B.
(
2019)
Beyond VOT in the Polish laryngeal contrast.
Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Melbourne, Australia.
[URL]
Shih, S., & Inkelas, S.
(
2019)
Autosegmental aims in surface-optimizing phonology.
Linguistic Inquiry, 50 (1), 137–196.
Simon, E.
(
2009)
Acquiring a new second language contrast: an analysis of the English laryngeal system of first language Dutch speakers.
Second Language Research, 25 (3), 377–408.
Steriade, D.
(
1993)
Closure, release, and nasal contours. In
M. Huffman &
R. Krakow (Eds.),
Nasals, nasalization, and the velum. (pp. 401–470). San Diego: Academic Press.
Stevens, K., & Klatt, D.
(
1974)
Role of formant transitions in the voiced-voiceless distinction for stops? Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 551, 653–659.
Sučková, M.
(
2018)
First language attrition and maintenance in the accents of native speakers of English living in the Czech Republic. Paper presented at Accents 2018. University of Łódź.
Sypiańska, J.
(
2013)
Quality and quantity of language use and attrition of L1 Polish due to L2 Danish and L3 English. PhD dissertation, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.
Traunmüller, H.
(
1994)
Conventional, biological, and environmental factors in speech communication: A modulation theory.
Phonetica, 511. 170–183.
Waniek-Klimczak, E.
(
2011)
Aspiration in Polish: A sound change in progress?. In
M. Pawlak, &
J. Bielak (Eds.),
New Perspectives in Language, Discourse and Translation Studies (pp. 3–11). Berlin: Springer.
Wetzels, W. L., & Mascaró, J.
(
2001)
The typology of voicing and devoicing.
Language, 771, 207–244.
Wrembel, M.
(
2015)
In search of a new perspective – cross-linguistic influence in the acquisition of third language phonology. Poznan: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM.
Zampini, M.
(
1998)
The relationship between the production and perception of L2 Spanish stops.
Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, 3(3), 85–100.
Cited by
Cited by 3 other publications
Osborne, Denise M. & Miquel Simonet
2021.
Foreign-Language Phonetic Development Leads to First-Language Phonetic Drift: Plosive Consonants in Native Portuguese Speakers Learning English as a Foreign Language in Brazil.
Languages 6:3
► pp. 112 ff.
Schwartz, Geoffrey
2021.
Spit or sbit? ST-type consonant clusters in the speech of Polish learners of English.
Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis 138:4
► pp. 187 ff.
Schwartz, Geoffrey, Kamil Kaźmierski & Ewelina Wojtkowiak
2021.
Perspectives on final laryngeal neutralisation: new evidence from Polish.
Phonology 38:4
► pp. 693 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.