Effects of phonemic variability and language dominance on Canadian French-English bilinguals’ perception of French vowels in various phonological contexts

Abstract

Phonemic variability can cause productions within a category of one language to be mapped onto multiple categories in a different language [Escudero (2009)]. For example, French productions of /ε/ are labeled both as /e/ and /ε/ by monolingual English listeners, likely due to spectral variability in production of French /ε/ [Strange et al. (2009)]. The present study examines how phonemic variability in Canadian French (CF) affects the perceptual tendencies of bilingual Canadian French-English listeners with varying levels of language dominance. Vowel productions by monolingual CF speakers were used in a modified identification task [Law (2011)]. The vowels were word-final in several phonological contexts (preceded by labial, coronal, and back consonants; followed by labial and coronal consonants) in real and nonwords embedded in carrier phrases. A subset of these vowels /e-ε-i-y/ was analyzed for duration, vocalic midpoint, and formant trajectories to examine the relationship between phonemic variation (as a function of phonological environment) and the perception results by bilinguals dominant in either CF or Canadian English (CE). We predict that the performance of CE-dominant listeners will vary in terms of speed and accuracy based on how similar each token is to CE vowel category expectations.