The vowel spaces of Southern Californian English and Mexican Spanish as produced by monolinguals and bilinguals

Abstract

The vowel spaces of Southern Californian English and Mexican Spanish were investigated using three groups of speakers: 11 English monolinguals (8 females), 11 Spanish monolinguals (9 females), and 10 Spanish-English bilinguals (7 females). Speakers produced six repetitions of the ten American English vowels [ i, ɪ, ɛ, æ, ɑ, ɔ, ʊ, u, ʌ, and ɜr] and six repetitions of the five Spanish vowels [i, e, a, u, and o]. Monolinguals produced vowels in one language; bilinguals produced vowels in both languages. Preliminary analysis shows Southern Californian English back vowels were less fronted compared to the results of Hagiwara (1997) from Southern Californian English, but more fronted than those of Hillenbrand et al. (1995) on General American English. Mexican Spanish back vowels [u] and [o] were substantially fronted compared to Castilian Spanish vowels [Bradlow (1995)], while [i] was lower and less fronted. In general, Mexican Spanish vowels were produced higher and more backed than Southern Californian English vowels in monolingual productions. Bilinguals produced their two vowel spaces closer together but with less dispersion than monolinguals, showing how bilinguals keep both language categories distinct.