Developing vowel systems as a window to bilingual phonology

Abstract

This study examines the vowel systems of German-Spanish bilingual children in order to determine whether there is interaction between the two language systems. German has a larger vowel inventory than Spanish and also contains an opposition between long and short vowels. Given the differences in the vowel systems, which point to a more marked system in the case of German, two predictions are considered: (a) bilingual children will acquire the vowel length contrast in their German productions later than monolingual German-speaking children; and (b) bilingual children will acquire Spanish vowels similarly to monolingual children. In the German analysis, monosyllabic and disyllabic trochaic words were transcribed and acoustically analyzed. In the Spanish analysis, monosyllabic, disyllabic, and trisyllabic words were transcribed and a perceptual judgment was made as to whether the vowel production was a possible allophonic variant of the target vowel. The results confirmed both predictions. Bilingual children were delayed relaof the target vowel. The results confirmed both predictions. Bilingual children were delayed relative to monolingual children in the acquisition of the German vowel length contrast and displayed similar performance to monolingual children in the production of Spanish vowels. In the conclusion, the relevance of the findings to bilingual acquisition and to the acquisition of vowel length representation in children's grammars is discussed.