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Effects of Exposure and Vowel Space Distribution on Phonetic Drift: Evidence from American English Learners of French
- Source :
- Language and Speech. 62:30-60
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Recent work by Chang has shown that even at the very earliest stages of second language (L2) acquisition, the phonetic implementation of speakers’ native English phoneme categories is slightly modified by contact with L2 Korean, which is referred to as “phonetic drift.” This study investigates whether rapid phonetic drift generalizes to another pairing of languages. We examined naïve American English learners of French, who were recorded producing both American English and French vowels after one and six weeks of a study abroad program in Paris. In addition, the Study Abroad group is compared with proficient American English L1 speakers of French who have been residents of Paris for at least five years, to investigate the impact of long-term use of an L2 on the vowel categories of L1. Whereas the Study Abroad group showed no evidence of phonetic drift after six weeks, the Paris Residents’ American English vowel space shifted along F1 and several English vowels demonstrated clear movement toward French monolingual norms. A closer look at the high vowels provides insight into how phonetic categories are influenced both by drift and by a pressure to keep vowel categories distinct between the languages. The results are also discussed with respect to potential effects of the size of the vowel inventory and the amount of input required to cause phonetic drift.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Space (punctuation)
050101 languages & linguistics
Linguistics and Language
Speech production
Time Factors
Adolescent
Sociology and Political Science
Voice Quality
Distribution (economics)
Multilingualism
Study abroad
Speech Acoustics
Language and Linguistics
Young Adult
030507 speech-language pathology & audiology
03 medical and health sciences
Speech and Hearing
Speech Production Measurement
Phonetics
Vowel
Humans
Learning
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
business.industry
American English
06 humanities and the arts
General Medicine
Middle Aged
Second-language acquisition
Linguistics
Second language
Female
0305 other medical science
Psychology
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17566053 and 00238309
- Volume :
- 62
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Language and Speech
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....920ea23dd4c82cfcdfa4b97b0efd7b3d