Phonetic Transfer Research Articles

A Literature Review of Phonetic Transfer

Phonetic transfer stands out as a vital part of language transfer in second language acquisition. This paper renders a pithy literature review apropos of current studies concerning the phenomenon of phonetic transfer that is arguably contemplated from three phonetic transfer error pertinent aspects: segment, phonology and prosody for the purpose of gaining new insight for the future research.

Phonetic Transfer of Teochew Dialect to English Pronunciation Acquisition

The transfer of phonological features in the first language to second language pronunciation during the process of second language acquisition has long been attested. A great majority of studies analyze the negative transfer from Chinese to English, yet few focus on Chinese dialects transfer to English. This paper aims to summarize the previous studies on Teochew phonological transfer to English acquisition, including consonant transfer, vowel transfer, and tonal transfer. Under the framework of Language Transfer Theory and Contrastive Analysis Hypotheses, research gaps and possible research directions for future studies will be put forward. This paper shows that phonetic transfer occurs in Teochew-speaking groups learning English, influenced by the dialects consonants, vowels and likely tones. Further research should explore transfer causes across different age groups and test classroom phonetic correction methods for Teochew-speaking English learners.

Phonetic Transfer of Mandarin and English Vowels: Advantages and Challenges for Second-Language Learners

This paper discusses the phonological migration of the Mandarin vowel system to the American vowel system during second language acquisition. To this end, six Mandarin-speaking Chinese students who received English certificates are selected for analysis in this paper. In addition, experimental results from previous studies are utilized for further phonological comparisons, and a perception task and an articulation task are used to compare similar vowel combinations in the Chinese and English vowel systems. The perception task is designed to assess the participants' ability to distinguish similar vowels in different vowel systems, while the articulation task utilized Praat software to acoustically analyze the participants' vowel and word pronunciation, standard English pronunciation, and Chinese vowel pronunciation. The pronunciation values are compared with the standard pronunciation values, and the relationship between similarity and learning difficulty is established to test the hypotheses. The results shows that Chinese students are influenced by the Chinese vowel system and are unable to distinguish similar vowel combinations. Therefore, the higher the similarity between English vowels and Chinese vowels, the better the acquisition effect.

Phonetic Transfer of Mandarin and English Vowels: Advantages and Challenges for Second-Language Learners

This paper discusses the phonological migration of the Mandarin vowel system to the American vowel system during second language acquisition. To this end, six Mandarin-speaking Chinese students who received English certificates are selected for analysis in this paper. In addition, experimental results from previous studies are utilized for further phonological comparisons, and a perception task and an articulation task are used to compare similar vowel combinations in the Chinese and English vowel systems. The perception task is designed to assess the participants' ability to distinguish similar vowels in different vowel systems, while the articulation task utilized Praat software to acoustically analyze the participants' vowel and word pronunciation, standard English pronunciation, and Chinese vowel pronunciation. The pronunciation values are compared with the standard pronunciation values, and the relationship between similarity and learning difficulty is established to test the hypotheses. The results shows that Chinese students are influenced by the Chinese vowel system and are unable to distinguish similar vowel combinations. Therefore, the higher the similarity between English vowels and Chinese vowels, the better the acquisition effect.

Study on Phonetic Transfer and Teaching Strategies in College English Teaching

The negative influence of mother tongue, especially dialect, on the pronunciation of Chinese English learners is very common, especially in western Inner Mongolia. Through empirical research, this study discusses the negative influence of western Inner Mongolia dialects on the phoneme transmission and cross-segment phoneme transmission of students in our region, so as to better help the students in western Inner Mongolia overcome the phonetic difficulties caused by the negative transmission of mother tongue dialects, break through the phonetic barrier and achieve the purpose of effective communication.

More Harm than Good: Why Dictionaries Using Orthographic Transcription Instead of the IPA Should Be Handled with Care

The aim of the present paper is to shed more light on using L1 (Polish) orthographic spelling to represent the pronunciation of English words in English-Polish dictionaries (e.g. journey /dżerni/, ship /szyp/) and discuss multiple drawbacks of this practice. While there are numerous advantages of using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in foreign language teaching, some Polish lexicographers insist on, what they call, a “simplified” phonetic transcription. In my paper I conduct an overview of three English-Polish dictionaries which use orthographic transcription instead of the IPA and exemplify inevitable confusion and serious problems they present the learner with. The analysis reveals that orthographic transcription intensifies interference between L1 and L2 and contributes to the fossilization of the most persistent mispronunciations stemming from phonetic transfer. Inconsistent and inaccurate transcription prevents learners from spotting patterns and rules (such as e.g. non-rhoticity, vowel reduction, silent letters, etc.). It is argued that relying on ordinary spelling rather than the IPA is a short-sighted alternative which presents more problems than solutions.

The Effect of English-Spanish Language Contact on North Midland /u/ Production

Abstract Monolingually-raised English speakers in the North Midland region of the United States have been found to produce a centralized or fronted /u/, despite it not being a standard feature of the region. The production of this relatively novel sound in bilingual contexts, as is the case of English-Spanish bilingual communities in the Chicagoland area, is not currently well-understood. In order to examine the effect of language contact and phonetic transfer on bilinguals’ speech, 20 adult heritage speakers from the Chicagoland area were recorded while producing /u/ in English and Spanish. 20 formant values at equidistant points from these vowels were taken and then analyzed using a generalized additive mixed-effects model (GAMM). The results of the GAMM and its visualization showed that, overall, the heritage speakers produced a fronted /u/ when speaking English but maintained a backed production of /u/ when speaking Spanish. These results suggest that bilingual heritage speakers are participating in the sound change of the North Midland, while successfully separating its influence from their Spanish speech.

Phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo)

Abstract Research on bilingual populations finds that phonetic transfer between languages is common, especially in similar sounds. Yet, phonetic studies that include bilingual speakers of Indigenous languages remain rare. This paper analyzes phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo), a Dene language indigenous to North America. Specifically, I examine the evidence for intergenerational change and convergence with English in the release period durations of Diné affricated stops [kx, tx]. The analysis is based on tokens of Diné [kx, tx] and English [kh, th] extracted from recent interviews with 51 Diné-English bilinguals. Release durations of targeted sounds are measured, compared with earlier analogous measurements, and statistically analyzed to assess age effects. Participants, especially younger speakers, are predicted to produce Diné [kx, tx] with shorter releases than earlier measurements, and with releases that align more with similar English sounds. Data confirm that speakers pronounce Diné [kx], but not [tx], with shorter durations; younger participants also produce [kx] with the shortest releases, and with durations closest to English [kh]. Results suggest that perceptual similarity between velar sounds leads to phonetic convergence, but alveolar sounds are sufficiently distinct to prevent transfer. Together, findings attest to the relevance of minority language contexts to theories of bilingual phonology.

A Study on the Negative Phonetic Transfer of English Learners in Henan Province

A Study on the Negative Phonetic Transfer of English Learners in Henan Province

Complex Patterns in L1-to-L2 Phonetic Transfer: The Acquisition of English Plosive and Affricate Fake Geminates and Non-Homorganic Clusters by Polish Learners

This paper analyses the way that Polish learners of English articulate plosive and affricate consonants preceding another obstruent occlusive in both L1 and L2. Considering that English allows unreleased plosives before any stop, that is in a wider range of contexts than Polish, a Polish learner may find it confusing that it is regarded unacceptable to block the affricate release before another (in English always homorganic) affricate. In Polish the first of two homorganic affricates is often reduced to the occlusion phase, while unreleased plosives appear very rarely in non-homorganic contexts. This apparent paradox in the treatment of affricate and plosive consonant clusters may lead to complicated transfer patterns, which we examine by observing the release suppression tendencies in Polish and English phrases and sentences read by phonetically trained and untrained Polish learners of English. The results indicate strong negative transfer tendencies and suggest a connection between gemination patterns and unreleased occlusive distribution in a language.

English-to-Chinese negative phonetic transfer by speech recognition technology

Phonetic transfer refers to the phenomenon that one’s L1 sound system can influence one’s L2 phonetics. Previous studies have investigated phonetic transfer in the area of articulation, but L1’s effects on L2 pronunciation measured by speech recognition technology have been under-researched. The purpose of the research is to address this issue by focusing on a sample of 151 US university students’ Chinese learning. Speech recognition technology (HDecode tool from HTKv3.4.1) was applied to measure and evaluate participants’ English and Chinese pronunciation. Based on the quantitative data, it’s examined whether participants has applied phonetic transfer to Chinese learning and what factors might influence the results of phonetic transfer. The results show that English-to-Chinese phonetic transfer occurs both positively and negatively. The extent of positive transfer is limited to a condition when English syllables and Chinese Pinyin have the same or similar sounds. However, the extent of negative transfer is significant when English syllables and Chinese Pinyin have different structures and sounds. Furthermore, the study investigates what types of Chinese Pinyin might cause English-to-Chinese negative transfer.

Cross-Linguistic Comparison of Screen Translations of Names in Hayao Miyazaki’s Animated Films

This article discusses the screen translation, into English and Chinese, of some of the names in Hayao Miyazaki’s animated films. In particular, in drawing onomastic examples from Miyazaki’s six animated fantasies, this study provides insights into the naming practices and strategies adopted by the screen translators into languages of distinct linguistic families. The analysis of names sorted into four categories yields the following results: (a) each screen translator used diff erent approaches to the translation of names, and (b) shared similarities with the source language and culture play a crucial role in the translation task. In brief, the first category concerns the films’ protagonists, for which the strategy of diminution is observed in Chinese but not in English translation. The second concerns the names of supporting human characters. Here, screen translators adopt several strategies, including direct phonetic transfer and incorporation of courtesy titles. The third comprises names of anthropomorphic and non-human creatures, and translated samples are shown more likely to be denotative and descriptive. Finally, there is no loss in translation with respect to the symbolic implication of location names. In general, screen translators utilized various linguistic strategies to produce onomastic substitutes that are acceptable to the local audience. Concurrently, they strived not to deviate too much from the original character names, in form and meaning.

Comparative Acoustic Analyses of L2 English: The Search for Systematic Variation

Background/Aims: Previous research has shown that exposure to multiple foreign accents facilitates adaptation to an untrained novel accent. One explanation is that L2 speech varies systematically such that there are commonalities in the productions of nonnative speakers, regardless of their language background. Methods: A systematic acoustic comparison was conducted between 3 native English speakers and 6 nonnative accents. Voice onset time, unstressed vowel duration, and formant values of stressed and unstressed vowels were analyzed, comparing each nonnative accent to the native English talkers. A subsequent perception experiment tests what effect training on regionally accented voices has on the participant’s comprehension of nonnative accented speech to investigate the importance of within-speaker variation on attunement and generalization. Results: Data for each measure show substantial variability across speakers, reflecting phonetic transfer from individual L1s, as well as substantial inconsistency and variability in pronunciation, rather than commonalities in their productions. Training on native English varieties did not improve participants’ accuracy in understanding nonnative speech. Conclusion: These findings are more consistent with a hypothesis of accent attune­ment wherein listeners track general patterns of nonnative speech rather than relying on overlapping acoustic signals between speakers.

Contact effects on voice-onset time (VOT) in Patagonian Welsh

The effects of language contact extend well beyond the borrowing of lexical items, and can include morphosyntactic, phonetic, and phonological changes over time (Thomason & Kaufman 1998). One especially common structural outcome of long-term contact is phonetic transfer (Matras 2009: 222). The Welsh spoken in Patagonia, which has been in close contact with Spanish for the past 150 years, offers one example of this phenomenon: Jones (1984) observes that younger speakers of Patagonian Welsh may be developing unaspirated voiceless stops /ptk/ as a result of Spanish contact. This paper measures the voice-onset time (VOT) of the Welsh voiceless stops /ptk/ using contemporary conversational speech data from both Patagonia and Wales, for speakers in three age groups (0–29, 30–59, and 60+ years), to examine the effects of Spanish contact on Patagonian Welsh. Results indicate that the tendencies seen in Jones (1984) have held true, and in fact have generalized to become a feature of Patagonian Welsh for speakers of all ages: Patagonian speakers produce the Welsh stops /ptk/ with significantly shorter VOT than speakers from Wales. These results shed light on an important distinguishing phonetic feature of this understudied variety of Welsh, as well as the dynamics of language contact in action.

Impact of language dominance on phonetic transfer in Cantonese–English bilingual language switching

AbstractBilinguals are susceptible to interaction between their two phonetic systems during speech processing. Using a language-switching paradigm, this study investigated differences in phonetic transfer of Cantonese–English bilingual adults with various language dominance profiles (Cantonese-dominant, English-dominant, and balanced bilinguals). Measurements of voice onset time revealed that unbalanced bilinguals and balanced bilinguals responded differently to language switching. Among unbalanced bilinguals, production of the dominant language shifted toward the nondominant language, with no effect in the opposite direction. However, balanced bilinguals’ speech production was unaffected by language switching. These results are analogous to the inhibitory control model, suggesting an asymmetrical switch cost of language switching at the phonetic level of speech production in unbalanced bilinguals. In contrast, the absence of switch cost in balanced bilinguals implies differences in the mechanism underlying balanced bilinguals’ and unbalanced bilinguals’ speech production.

Phonetic transfer in language contact: Evidence for equivalence classification in the mid-vowels of Occitan–French bilinguals

This article examines first to second language (L1-to-L2) phonetic transfer in the speech of ten Occitan–French bilinguals, focusing on the mid-vowels in each of their languages. Investigating transfer in a situation of long-term societal language contact aims to shed light on the emergence of regional French phonological features from contact with Occitan. Using a sociophonetic methodology, the concept of equivalence classification (Flege 1988) is investigated, that is, that L2 words will be (initially) decomposed into familiar L2 sound categories, causing L1 and L2 sounds to resemble each other phonetically. The consequences of language contact are modelled statistically using an original corpus of over 1200 vowel tokens. The findings show that equivalence classification may not lead to equated sounds coming to resemble each other phonetically, suggesting necessary revisions to the speech learning model (SLM) hypothesis, and the need to consider the influence of sociolinguistic factors in situations of long-term language contact is emphasised.

Contact effects on voice-onset time in Patagonian Welsh

The effects of language contact extend well beyond lexical borrowings and can include morphosyntactic, phonetic, and phonological changes over time (Thomason & Kaufman 1998). One especially common outcome of long-term contact is phonetic transfer (Matras 2009:222). The Welsh spoken in Patagonia, in close contact with Spanish for the past 150 years, offers one potential example: Jones (1984) observes that younger Patagonian Welsh speakers may be developing unaspirated voiceless stops /p t k/ as a result of Spanish contact. This paper explores this hypothesis through a quantitative study of voice-onset time (VOT) of the Welsh voiceless stops /p t k/ in contemporary conversational speech data from Patagonia and Wales, from male and female speakers in three age groups (0-29, 30-59, and 60 + ). Results show that the tendencies reported by Jones (1984) have held true, and in fact have generalized to become a feature of Patagonian Welsh for speakers of all ages: Patagonian speakers produce the Welsh stops /p t k/ with significantly shorter VOT values than speakers from Wales. These results shed light on an important distinguishing phonetic feature of this understudied variety of Welsh, as well as the dynamics of language contact in action.

Achieving Native-like Pronunciation through Phonetic Analysis and Poetry

The problem of identifying phonetic phenomena related to language transfer and correction in second language (L2) production can be approached by conducting broad analyses of the same L2 speaker. This approach is applied in the present study, which investigates errors of pronunciation segmentally (grammatical mistakes, voicing of consonants, and vowel distinctions) and suprasegmentally (intonation and time-gaining techniques) in order to establish the possibility of their being corrected in two recordings of readings by a non-native French speaker. The errors from the first recording were identified, analyzed, and corrected through pronunciation exercises with the aim of raising awareness of the problems to help overcome them on the second reading attempt. The correction methods involved exercises such as reading poetry aloud, pronouncing consonantal segments in various vocalic environments, and reading the target text, syllable by syllable. In addition, the analysis investigates the possibility of phonetic transfer from the two primary languages of the speaker: Bulgarian and English. The researcher is the speaker, the methodological implications of which are discussed, reaching the overall conclusion that it helps to raise awareness of the phonetic background of the errors. Despite the risk of compromising the data through this methodological choice, the results show that a high level of attention and monitoring of the speech alone may be insufficient for internalizing corrections. While grammatical mistakes were corrected most effectively, other segmental and suprasegmental features showed different levels of success. One of the features (the /ɛ/ and /e/ distinction) even exhibited deterioration in the second recording. These examples suggest the presence of “equivalence classification” phenomena and raise the question of the appropriateness of the phonetic exercises for overcoming the errors. Another area of interest was determining the source of errors such as “uptalk”, the reassigning of grammatical gender, word-final devoicing, and elimination of syllable-initial lenis stop prevoicing. Due to the limited amount of data available, it was difficult to draw firm conclusions, but the tendencies observed suggested that the errors might be due to transfer from the speaker’s primary languages, whose influence appeared to be equal. Further research should therefore control for the influence of the two primary languages and extend the scope to include a second post-training recording. Overall, the second recording demonstrated that raised awareness and training helped to achieve acceptable production in the suprasegmental features as well as most of the instances of unfamiliar phones, such as /ʁ/, front-rounded vowels, and nasal vowels.

The role of code-switching and language context in bilingual phonetic transfer

The present study examines the effect of two potential catalysts for interlanguage phonetic interaction, code-switching and language mode, on the production of voice onset time (VOT) to better understand the role of (near) simultaneous dual language activation on phonetic production, as well as the nature of phonetic transfer. An oral production paradigm was carried out in which Spanish–English bilinguals produced words with initial voiceless stops as non-switched tokens, code-switched tokens in an otherwise monolingual context, and code-switched tokens in a bilingual context. Results demonstrated a degree of phonetic transfer associated with code-switching, either unidirectional or bi-directional. Specifically, English, with long lag VOT, was more susceptible to phonetic transfer than Spanish (short lag). Contrary to expectations, while the code-switching effect was present in both monolingual and bilingual mode, there was no additional transfer, or additive effect, of bilingual language mode. Differences in the effects of code-switching on English and Spanish are discussed with respect to the inherently different acceptable VOT ranges in the two languages. Furthermore, the lack of difference in VOT between the code-switched tokens in the monolingual and bilingual contexts is taken to suggest limits on phonetic transfer.

Phonetic Adaptation of Hungarian Loanwords in Romanian

Abstract In current linguistics, as well as in the fields of contact linguistics and sociolinguistics, the assessment of contact between the different languages used by speakers living in the same geographical/political area receives a pronounced role. These languages inevitably come into contact. The research on language contact between Hungarian and Romanian has a past marked by scholarly works that focus especially on the lexical- semantic level. Because contact between linguistic phenomena occurs at every level of language, it is necessary to focus on the smallest linguistic elements as well. In our work, we analyse a corpus of words borrowed from Hungarian by the Romanian language, focusing on stop sounds. In our paper, we establish the main phonetic transfer modalities, discussing the subject in an international framework.