A Survey of Phonological Mid Vowel Intuitions in Central Catalan

Abstract

Catalan, like other Romance languages, has two pairs of phonemic mid vowels (/be/ "well" vs. /bɛ/ "lamb"; /os/ "bear" vs. /ɔs/ "bone"). However, these contrasts do not function like others in the language: they are partially phonologically conditioned, and evidence shows that words may be pronounced with different mid vowels by speakers of the same variety or even by the same speaker. Spanish may influence this instability, as first-language Spanish Catalan-Spanish bilinguals struggle to perceive and produce the contrast. This paper investigates the mid vowel contrasts in an Internet survey of vowel height judgments in 220 words by 146 Central Catalan-speaking individuals who also self-reported their language history. Results confirm that certain phonological contexts condition mid vowel height, typically favoring low mid judgments; where phonological conditioning occurs, speakers judge quality with increased consistency and confidence. Many words lacking phonological conditioning environments, however, are variable across speakers. Bilingualism levels and age have an effect: among Catalan-dominant participants, choice of mid vowel is affected by age, while participants with the highest Catalan dominance have greatest confidence in their intuitions. Variably-judged words are also phonetically variable, indicating a word-specific association between strength of phonological representation and realization.

Robustness and Complexity in Italian Mid Vowel Contrasts

“…In a production-based task, Nadeu and Renwick (2016) compared the acoustics of mid vowels against native speakers' own intuitions of height and found that intuitions do not uniformly correspond to productions; speakers with poor intuitions may exhibit increased acoustic overlap between higher and lower mid vowels. Linking marginal contrast with bilingualism and language change, a large-scale Internet survey showed that speakers with higher Catalan dominance have increased confidence in making and judging height distinctions and that older speakers are more likely to use low /E O/ (Renwick and Nadeu 2018). The survey confirmed a synchronic link between phonological context and mid vowel height: judgments were more confident and consistent in segmental contexts where low mid vowels were historically preferred (Renwick and Nadeu 2018;cf.…”

The effect of simultaneous exposure on the attention selection and integration of segments and lexical tones by Urdu-Cantonese bilingual speakers

“…The recommended students and one of their parents received a small compensation gift after completing the online student and parental questionnaires, in either Cantonese or English versions, via “google form.” The student questionnaires were designed based on the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP, Birdsong et al, 2012 ), a widely used tool for assessing speakers’ bilingualism (e.g., Amengual, 2016 ; Renwick and Nadeu, 2019 ; Aldrich, 2020 ). The degree of bilingualism was examined along four modules separately for L1 and L2, including “language history,” “language use,” “language proficiency,” and “language attitudes.” Similarly, the parental questionnaires also consisted of four modules, including “language history for parents,” “language education history for children,” “language proficiency for parents,” and “Urdu proficiency for children.” Also, their Chinese teachers were invited to assess their students’ proficiency in Cantonese.…”

“…The recommended students and one of their parents received a small compensation gift after completing the online student and parental questionnaires, in either Cantonese or English versions, via "google form. " The student questionnaires were designed based on the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP, Birdsong et al, 2012), a widely used tool for assessing speakers' bilingualism (e.g., Amengual, 2016;Renwick and Nadeu, 2019;10.3389/fpsyg.2022.918737 Frontiers in Psychology 06 frontiersin.org Aldrich, 2020). The degree of bilingualism was examined along four modules separately for L1 and L2, including "language history, " "language use, " "language proficiency, " and "language attitudes. "…”

The role of early experience and continued language use in bilingual speech production: A study of Galician and Spanish mid vowels by Galician-Spanish bilinguals

“…/e-ɛ/ and /o-ɔ/ (Regueira, 1996), while Spanish only distinguishes a single mid front and mid back vowel. Previous work from Galician and other Romance languages, has shown that these contrasts are particularly difficult to acquire and maintain (Amengual, 2016;Amengual & Chamorro, 2015;Mora, Keidel & Flege, 2015;Mora & Nadeu, 2012;Nadeu & Renwick, 2016;Pallier, Bosch & Sebastián-Gallés, 1997;Renwick & Ladd, 2016;Renwick & Nadeu, 2018;Tomé Lourido & Evans, 2015Simonet, 2011). This instability has not only been documented in bilingual settings where acquisition and maintenance may be adversely affected by interaction with a language that lacks mid vowel contrasts, as in the case of Galician and Catalan, but also in monolingual settings.…”