Short-Term Sources of Cross-Linguistic Phonetic Influence: Examining the Role of Linguistic Environment

Daniel J Olson

doi:10.3390/languages5040043

Abstract

While previous research has shown that bilinguals are able to effectively maintain two sets of phonetic norms, these two phonetic systems experience varying degrees of cross-linguistic influence, driven by both long-term (e.g., proficiency, immersion) and short-term (e.g., bilingual language contexts, code-switching, sociolinguistic) factors. This study examines the potential for linguistic environment, or the language norms of the broader community in which an interaction takes place, to serve as a source of short-term cross-linguistic phonetic influence. To investigate the role of linguistic environment, late bilinguals (L1 English—L2 Spanish) produced Spanish utterances in two sessions that differed in their linguistic environments: an English-dominant linguistic environment (Indiana, USA) and a Spanish-dominant linguistic environment (Madrid, Spain). Productions were analyzed at the fine-grained acoustic level, through an acoustic analysis of voice onset time, as well as more holistically through native speaker global accent ratings. Results showed that linguistic environment did not significantly impact either measure of phonetic production, regardless of a speaker’s second language proficiency. These results, in conjunction with previous results on long- and short-term sources of phonetic influence, suggest a possible primacy of the immediate context of an interaction, rather than broader community norms, in determining language mode and cross-linguistic influence.

Highlights

Research has shown that bilinguals, including both early bilinguals (e.g., MacLeod andStoel-Gammon 2005) and late second language learners (e.g., Schmid et al 2014), can effectively maintain two separate phonetic systems for their two languages
The results showed that while children clearly differentiated between the two phonetic systems, with respect to /r/, English tokens produced during the Arabic sessions underwent a degree of phonetic transfer, becoming decidedly more Arabic-like
While long-term immersion in a given linguistic environment has been shown to impact the degree of cross-linguistic influence, the current study examines the potential for linguistic environment to act as a short-term source of cross-linguistic phonetic influence

Summary

Introduction

Stoel-Gammon 2005) and late second language learners (e.g., Schmid et al 2014), can effectively maintain two separate phonetic systems for their two languages. These two phonetic systems are not fully independent, and cross-linguistic influence, in which the phonetic system of one language is influenced by the competing language, has been evidenced across a range of bilingual populations and contexts. Short-term refers to contexts in which production or perception may be altered for a single speaker in response to immediate or momentary changes in the linguistic situation (e.g., bilingual language mode and code-switching), while long-term refers to sustained influences over longer periods of times (e.g., acquisition and immersion). While some long-term sources of phonetic cross-linguistic influence, such as immersion (e.g., Casillas 2020) and instruction (e.g., Lee et al 2015), are well-studied, less research has focused on potential short-term (i.e., transient) sources of cross-linguistic influence (Simonet 2014).

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