Cognitive and social forces in dialect shift: Gradual change in London Asian speech

Sharma, Devyani; Sankaran, Lavanya

doi:10.1017/s0954394511000159

Cited by 97 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…This influence may be present in bilingual settings or in situations where language shift has already taken place as a SUBSTRATE. Such substrate effects are noted in many established global varieties of English (Schneider, 2011, p.201 see also Sankoff, 2001 for a review) and in the contemporary speech of monolingual descendants of immigrant communities (e.g. Holmes, 1996;Fought, 1999;Sharma & Sankaran, 2011;Kirkham, 2013). The presence of a Welsh substrate effect on varieties of Welsh English is well attested, both at the level of phonology (Wells, 1982, p. 377; Thomas, 1997, p. 67;Penhallurick, 2004) and morphosyntax (e.g.…”

Section: Long-term Language Contactmentioning

confidence: 95%

Disentangling the effects of long-term language contact and individual bilingualism: The case of monophthongs in Welsh and English

Mayr

Morris

Mennen

et al. 2015

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and Objectives:This study investigates the effects of individual bilingualism and long-term language contact on monophthongal vowel productions in English and Welsh. Design:To this end, we recorded the Welsh and English vowel productions of two sets of Welsh-English bilinguals differing in home language use, as well as the English vowel productions of English monolinguals. Data and analysis:The data were analysed acoustically, with a focus on spectral and temporal properties. Comparisons were then made within each language and crosslinguistically. Findings:The results of a cross-linguistic acoustic comparison revealed a high degree of convergence in the monophthong systems of Welsh and English, but also some language-specific categories. Interestingly, at the individual level we found no effect of linguistic experience on vowel production: the two sets of bilinguals and the English monolinguals did not differ in their realisation of English vowels, and the two sets of bilinguals did not differ in their realisation of Welsh vowels. Originality:This is one of few studies to examine the effect of linguistic background on variation in Welsh and English bilingual speech, and the first to compare the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals and English monolinguals. More specifically, it investigates the extent to which a speaker's home language can affect phonetic variation in a close-knit community of speakers and in a situation characterised by long-term language contact. Implications:The findings demonstrate pervasive phonetic convergence in a language contact situation with a historical substrate. They also indicate that a homogeneous peer group with shared values can override the effects of individual linguistic experience.

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Section: Long-term Language Contactmentioning

confidence: 95%

Disentangling the effects of long-term language contact and individual bilingualism: The case of monophthongs in Welsh and English

Mayr

Morris

Mennen

et al. 2015

International Journal of Bilingualism

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“…On the other hand, in contrast to the latter, they commonly realised Sylheti coronals as alveolars, and produced some tokens of /gʱ/ as [g]. Differences of this kind between first-generation migrants and second-generation heritage language users are well attested (e.g., Evans et al, 2007;McCarthy et al, 2011McCarthy et al, , 2013Nagy & Kochetov, 2013;Sharma & Sankaran, 2011), and have been explained in a number of ways. Chambers (2002) claimed that second-generation speakers have an innate accent filter that blocks non-native features in the host language.…”

Section: Acquisition Patterns: Adultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Kirkham (2011), for example, argued that British Asians from Sheffield used retroflex realisations of English /t/ to signal their Asian identity, rather than inadvertently as a result of cross-linguistic interactions, since the use of these forms could not be predicted on the basis of their language use patterns, with even monolingual English speakers from the community using them. Sharma & Sankaran (2011), in turn, examined the acquisition of a native feature, /t/ glottaling, and a non-native feature, /t/ retroflexion, in British Asians from London. They found that younger second-generation speakers used /t/ retroflexion in English to signal their Asian identity, while older second-generation speakers followed first-generation speakers' non-native use of /t/ retroflexion, but unlike them, used /t/ glottaling natively.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter-generational transmission in a minority language setting: Stop consonant production by Bangladeshi heritage children and adults

Mayr

Siddika

2016

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and Objectives:The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of speech development across successive generations of heritage language users, examining how crosslinguistic, developmental and sociocultural factors affect stop consonant production. Design:To this end, we recorded Sylheti and English stop productions of two sets of Bangladeshi heritage families: (1) first-generation adult migrants from Bangladesh and their (second-generation) UK-born children, and (2) second-generation UK-born adult heritage language users and their (third-generation) UK-born children. Data and analysis:The data were analysed auditorily, using whole-word transcription, and acoustically, examining voice onset time. Comparisons were then made in both languages across the four groups of participants, and cross-linguistically. Findings:The results revealed non-native productions of English stops by the first-generation migrants but largely target-like patterns by the remaining sets of participants. The Sylheti stops exhibited incremental changes across successive generations of speakers, with the third-generation children's productions showing the greatest influence from English. Originality:This is one of few studies to examine both the host and heritage language in an ethnic minority setting, and the first to demonstrate substantial differences in heritage language accent between age-matched second-and third-generation children. The study shows that current theories of bilingual speech learning do not go far enough in explaining how speech develops in heritage language settings. Implications:These findings have important implications for the maintenance, transmission and long-term survival of heritage languages, and show that investigations need to go beyond second-generation speakers, in particular in communities that do not see a steady influx of new migrants. & Siddika (2016, accepted) 3 Mayr

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“…Class and ethnicity are particularly interesting in this regard, as different generations may have substantially different experiences of racialised class structures (Platt 2005), which can impact upon how they use linguistic variation for identity work (e.g. Sharma & Sankaran 2011). It is therefore imperative to consider the ways in which ethnicity itself is structured as a class relation (Rampton 2010:2).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersectionality and the social meanings of variation: Class, ethnicity, and social practice

Kirkham

2015

Lang. Soc.

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A B S T R A C TThis article examines how the social meanings of phonetic variation in a British adolescent community are influenced by a complex relationship between ethnicity, social class, and social practice. I focus on the realisation of the HAPPY vowel in Sheffield English, which is reported to be a lax variant [ɛ] amongst working-class speakers but is undergoing change towards a tense variant [i] amongst middle-class speakers. I analyse the acoustic realisation of this vowel across four female communities of practice in a multiethnic secondary school and find that the variable's community-wide associations of social class are projected onto the ethnographic category of school orientation, which I suggest is a more local interpretation of class relations. Ethnographic evidence and discourse analysis reveal that local meanings of the HAPPY vowel vary further within distinctive community of practice styles, which is the result of how ethnicity and social class intersect in structuring local social practices. (Intersectionality, indexicality, social meaning, identity, ethnicity, social class)*

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Cognitive and social forces in dialect shift: Gradual change in London Asian speech

Cited by 97 publications

References 45 publications

Disentangling the effects of long-term language contact and individual bilingualism: The case of monophthongs in Welsh and English

Disentangling the effects of long-term language contact and individual bilingualism: The case of monophthongs in Welsh and English

Inter-generational transmission in a minority language setting: Stop consonant production by Bangladeshi heritage children and adults

Intersectionality and the social meanings of variation: Class, ethnicity, and social practice

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