Bilinguals’ attitudes toward their languages can be a major source of linguistic variability. However, the effect of attitudes on crosslinguistic phonetic interactions in bilinguals remains largely unexplored. This study investigated the possibility of such effects in Cantonese-English bilinguals in Hong Kong (n = 26). Participants produced near-homophones in each language on separate days. Formant values of Cantonese [ɐ] and English [ʌ] and degrees of diphthongization of Cantonese [o] and [ai], and English [oʊ] and [ai], were analyzed as a function of language proficiency, use, and language attitude scores drawn from a background questionnaire. Participants’ attitudes toward Cantonese were predictive of the acoustic difference between similar Cantonese and Hong Kong English (HKE) vowels: More Cantonese-oriented speakers produced greater acoustic distance between crosslinguistically similar vowels. No effects of English attitudes, proficiency, or use were found. These results demonstrate that bilinguals’ attitude toward their native language can affect the degree of phonetic similarity between the two languages they speak.
Commonly adjusted characteristics include: Expanded vowel space Reduced articulation rate Changes in pitch METHODS Initial Stops second set ANALYSIS and RESULTS CONCLUSIONS ScreenHunter_20 Sep. 10 00.48 Patterns based on language attitudes English-oriented: More expanded vowel space when addressing native than nonnative English interlocutors. Trend towards speaking faster when addressing native English speakers than other groups.
Bilingual speakers’ speech varies phonetically according to many factors such as age of arrival and of acquisition of the second language (L2) (e.g., Flege et al., 1999). However, such temporal factors may not be as relevant to populations with more uniform language experience, as in pervasively multilingual societies. In such diglossic situations, speakers’ attitudes toward each of their languages may have a stronger influence on everyday pronunciation, as they do for language learning (Moyer, 2007) and phonetic accommodation to interlocutors (Dmitrieva et al., 2015). This study was designed to determine whether bilingual speakers’ attitude toward their language(s) and associated culture(s) modulates phonetic properties of their speech. Native Cantonese-English bilinguals living in Hong Kong (N = 20) produced near homophones in both languages under conditions emphasizing each language on different days. The degree of diphthongization of Cantonese /o/ and English /oʊ/, and Cantonese /aɪ/ and English /ɑɪ/ were quantified acoustically and compared to attitude scores elicited in a questionnaire. Participants with a more positive attitude toward Cantonese showed larger cross-language differences in diphthongization of these pairs, demonstrating an effect of language attitude on phonetic properties of speech and highlighting the contribution of sociolinguistic factors to phonetic variability in diglossic contexts.
Researchers tend to quantify degree of bilingualism according to age-related factors such as age of acquisition (Flege, et al. 1999, Yeni-Komshian, et al. 2000). However, previous research suggests that bilinguals may also show different degrees of accent and patterns of phonetic interaction between their first language (L1) and second language (L2) as a result of factors such as the quantity and quality of L2 input (Flege & Liu, 2001), amount of L1 vs. L2 use (Flege, et al. 1999), and attitude toward each language (Moyer, 2007). The goal of this study is to identify gradient properties of speech production that can be related to gradient language experience and attitudes in a bilingual population that is relatively homogeneous in terms of age-related factors. Native Cantonese-English bilinguals living in Hong Kong produced near homophones in both languages under conditions emphasizing one language or the other on different days. Acoustic phonetic variables related to phonological inventory differences between the two languages, including lexical tone/stress, syllable length, nasality, fricative manner and voicing, release of stop, voice onset time, and vowel quality and length, will be quantified and compared to results from a detailed survey of individual speakers’ experience and attitudes toward the two languages.
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