Gestural drift in Spanish‐English speakers.

Abstract

Voice onset times (VOTs) and second vowel formants (F2s) of native speakers of Spanish were examined to extend findings on perceptually guided changes in speech production [M. L. Sancier and C. A. Fowler, J. Phon. 25, 421–426 (1995)]. Participants were recorded producing English and Spanish sentences after stays in the U.S. and in Spanish‐speaking countries. Participants' English and Spanish VOTs were both significantly shorter after a stay in a Spanish‐speaking country than after a stay in the U.S., supporting previous findings. While S1’s F2s were significantly lower following exposure to Spanish, as expected based on earlier results [A.R. Bradlow, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97(3), 1916–1924 (1995)], S2’s F2s increased. We attribute this effect to gender, pending further data acquisition. We propose that not only inter‐gestural timing but also the gestural targets themselves are affected by ambient language. The systematic effect of language exposure on F2 is consistent with language‐specific articulatory sett...