Stop consonant voicing in Malay‐English bilinguals

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The productions of two groups of Malay‐English bilinguals were investigated. The subjects, native speakers of Malay, were asked to read Malay and English words that differed in voicing of initial and final stop consonants. The four subjects in the Malaysia group resided in Malaysia and were not exposed to a predominantly English speaking environment, and the two subjects in the U.S. group resided in the U.S. for 5 years. Results on word initial stops are reported here. In Malay, voiced initial stops are characterized by voicing lead and voiceless stops by short voicing lag. Comparison of the two bilingual groups revealed that, although there were no significant differences in the voiced productions, there was a shift towards a more Englishlike production for the voiceless stops by the U.S. group. Analysis of the English words showed no differences in the production of the voiced stops; however, the U.S. group produced the voiceless stops with significantly longer VOT values than the Malaysia group. None of the subjects showed a shift in voicing characteristics as a function of language. These results suggest that native Malay productions in bilinguals, residing in the U.S., were altered in a direction that is characteristic of English.