Cross-Language Phonetic Interference: Arabic to English

Flege, James Emil; Port, Robert F.

doi:10.1177/002383098102400202

Cited by 214 publications

(234 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The phonemic vowel length hypothesis predicts that Arabic speakers should use vocalic duration extensively in production and perception. On the contrary, Experiment 1 revealed that, consistent with Flege and Port's (1981) findings, they produced only slightly (but significantly) longer vocalic segments in their pod tokens. It further indicated that their productions showed a significant variation in F1 offset as a function of final stop voicing.…”

supporting

confidence: 73%

Use of vocalic cues to consonant voicing and native language background: The influence of experimental design

Crowther

Mann

1994

Perception & Psychophysics

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For native speakers of English and several other languages, preceding vocalic duration and F1 offset frequency are two of the cues that convey the stop consonant voicing distinction in word-. final position. For speakers learning English as a second language, there are indications that use of vocalic duration, but not F1 offset frequency, may be hindered by a lack of experience with phonemic (i.e., lexical) vowel length (the "phonemic vowel length account": Crowther & Mann, 1992). In this study, native speakers of Arabic, a language that includes a phonemic vowel length distinction, were tested for their use of vocalic duration and F1 offset in production and perception of the English consonant-vowel-consonant forms pod and pot. The phonemic vowel length hypothesis predicts that Arabic speakers should use vocalic duration extensively in production and perception. On the contrary, Experiment 1 revealed that, consistent with Flege and Port's (1981) findings, they produced only slightly (but significantly) longer vocalic segments in their pod tokens. It further indicated that their productions showed a significant variation in F1 offset as a function of final stop voicing. Perceptual sensitivity to vocalic duration and F1 offset as voicing cues was tested in two experiments. In Experiment 2, we employed a factorial combination of these two cues and a finely spaced vocalic duration continuum. Arabic speakers did not appear to be very sensitive to vocalic duration, but they were about as sensitive as native English speakers to F1 offset frequency. In Experiment 3, we employed a one-dimensional continuum of more widely spaced stimuli that varied only vocalic duration. Arabic speakers showed native-English-like sensitivity to vocalic duration. An explanation based on the perceptual anchor theory of context coding (Braida et al., 1984;Macmillan, 1987;Macmillan, Braida, & Goldberg, 1987) and phoneme perception theory (Schouten & Van Hessen, 1992) is offered to reconcile the apparently contradictory perceptual findings. The explanation does not attribute native-English-like voicing perception to the Arabic subjects. The findings in this study call for a modification of the phonemic vowel length hypothesis.The duration and first formant (Fl) offset frequency of vocalic segments have been widely studied as cues to final stop consonant voicing for native speakers of English. Relatively long vocalic segments that terminate with relatively low Fl offset frequencies cue voiced final stop consonants, whereas shorter segments with higher Fl offsets cue voiceless final stop consonants (Raphael,

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confidence: 73%

Use of vocalic cues to consonant voicing and native language background: The influence of experimental design

Crowther

Mann

1994

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…Some studies, particularly for highly proficient early bilinguals, have shown that bilinguals are capable of producing segmental features in line with those of the corresponding monolingual populations (Nathan, Anderson & Budsayamongkon 1987, Mack 1989, Magloire & Green 1999, Macleod & Stoel-Gammon 2005. Other studies, however, have shown that, while maintaining different norms for their two languages, bilingual phonetic productions are not necessarily identical to monolingual norms (Flege & Port 1981, Flege & Hillenbrand 1984, Major 1987, with bilinguals generally showing some degree of convergence towards the opposite language norms (Caramazza et al 1972;see Flege & Eefting 1987, for both convergence and divergence). Although there is some debate regarding the underlying processes responsible for acquisition, the existence of dual phonetic systems holds for both early simultaneous bilingual acquisition (Unitary System Model, e.g.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 98%

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

Olson

2016

Journal of the International Phonetic Association

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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.

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“…Languages like Arabic (Flege & Port, 1981), Saraiki , Dutch (Simon, 2009(Simon, , 2011, Spanish (Flege & Eefting, 1988), Russian (Backley, 2011), Japanese (Shimizu, 2011), Hungarian (Lisker & Abramson, 1964, etc. are considered voicing languages but German (Hamann, 2011), English (Honeybone, 2005), Swedish, Korean, Icelandic (Backley, 2011), etc.…”

Section: The Voiced Plosives /B D G/mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perception and Production of Consonants of English by Pakistani Speakers

Syed¹,

Ansari²,

Bux³

2017

IJEL

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This paper depicts a comprehensive picture of consonants of Pakistani English (PakE). The study shows that PakE speakers neutralize aspiration contrast in English stops. In the PakE, /t/ in /st/ cluster on onset of a word (e.g., steal) is produced with more aspiration than that on syllable-initial position without preceding /s/ (e.g., in "teach"). Besides, /t d/ are produced with strong retroflexion but /t/ in tautosyllabic /st/ clusters on word-initial position is produced without retroflexion. Voiced stops are produced with pre-voicing. Dental fricatives /θ ð/ produced by native speakers of English are perceived as [f z] or [s v] by PakE speakers but they produce these fricatives as stop. PakE speakers can realize a difference between clear and dark lateral of English in perception although they do not maintain the same difference in production as they produce English lateral as a clear lateral on onset and coda of syllables. Coronal fricative /ʒ/ is perceived and produced as approximant /j/ and /v w/ as a labial approximant. In PakE [r] is produced with strong trilling and rhoticity on all word-positions.

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Cross-Language Phonetic Interference: Arabic to English

Cited by 214 publications

References 23 publications

Use of vocalic cues to consonant voicing and native language background: The influence of experimental design

Use of vocalic cues to consonant voicing and native language background: The influence of experimental design

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

Perception and Production of Consonants of English by Pakistani Speakers

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