Cross-influences between the phonological systems of Lithuanian-English bilinguals

Abstract

Two groups of Lithuanian-English bilinguals in Montreal—an Older group fully proficient in Lithuanian and moderately in English, and a Younger group highly proficient in both languages—heard sound sequences of four types: EL, permissible in both languages in the initial position of words, EL̄, permissible only in English, ĒL, permissible only in Lithuanian, andĒL̄, permissible in neither language. They evaluated the extent of acceptability of the sequences as initial clusters of English and of Lithuanian words and rated the subjective pleasantness-unpleasantness of the sequences. The sequences permissible in English (EL + EL̄) were judged as more acceptable in Lithuanian than the sequences not permissible in English (ĒL + ĒL̄). Lithuanian also influenced English judgments in a similar way, but only for the Older group and even for them to a lesser extent. The results from an English monolingual control group indicated that the above findings were attributable to cross-influences between the two languages. Two factors were assumed to account for the influences discovered, the dominant sociolinguistic status of English and the high proficiency of the Older bilinguals in Lithuanian. In the affective ratings, the bilinguals showed relatively more favorable reactions to the ĒL sequences than the monolinguals.