Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual production of clear speech

Abstract

Clear speech, a listener-oriented speaking style adopted to mitigate communicative barriers, is often characterized by language-specific acoustic enhancement of phonological contrasts (Smiljanic and Bradlow, 2008; Cho et al., 2011). Previous work (e.g., Smiljanic and Bradlow, 2009) suggested a possibility that bilingual speakers’ L1 and L2 clear speech strategies could affect each other. The current study examined English and Korean clear speech produced by late Korean-English bilinguals (n = 30) living in the United States. Their clear speech produced in each of the two languages was compared with clear speech produced by either English (n = 20) or Korean (n = 20) monolinguals. Of specific interest was how English and Korean stop contrasts were realized and enhanced in clear speech with respect to the use of VOT and onset F0. The bilinguals enhanced the English voicing contrast in the same manner as English monolinguals, via asymmetrical lengthening of voiceless stops’ VOT. In Korean clear speech, bilinguals also lengthened VOT of the aspirated and lenis (long-lag) stops, whereas Korean monolinguals did not exhibit the same pattern. These findings suggest that Korean clear speech strategies produced by the bilinguals could be affected by their L2, due to their extensive exposure to the language.