Durational variability of schwa in early and late Spanish–English bilinguals

Emily, Byers; Yavaş, Mehmet

doi:10.1177/1367006914547936

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…It was approved by the Florida International University Review Board as IRB-011212-02-TR “Variation in the Production of Reduced Vowels by Monolingual and Bilingual Populations” as one of several proposed studies examining segmental variation. We aimed to determine if the two bilingual groups systematically produce different vowel durations and/or spectral qualities from Miami’s monolingual English speakers [17, 20]. We also examined three potential predictors of native-like L2 phonetic output including age of L2 learning, amount of L1 use, and bilingual dominance scores.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, schwas that are phonologically-conditioned for optional weak syllable deletion (e.g. between the stressed syllable and another syllable anchored by schwa) possess shorter mean durations than word-internal schwas not phonologically-primed for deletion [20–22]. Across all positions, schwa’s status as an unstressed vowel is highlighted by the large ratio of stressed vowel duration to unstressed vowel duration that characterizes English [6, 23–24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiential factors include amount of L1 use [25, 57, 69–71], formal education in one or both languages [20, 72], and the native-speaker status of the L2 community [69]. These factors may overlap to varying degrees with nonstructural features such as linguistic attitudes [73], ethnic identity of the L2 speaker [74], and motivation to achieve native-like pronunciation in the L2 [75].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

Emily¹,

Yavaş²

2017

PLoS ONE

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Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a “foreign accent” in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or “schwas,” have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than spectral qualities. Finally, we examined the role of nonstructural variables (e.g. linguistic history measures) in predicting native-like vowel duration. These factors included: Age of L2 learning, amount of L1 use, and self-reported bilingual dominance. Our results suggested that different sociolinguistic factors predicted native-like reduced vowel duration than predicted native-like vowel qualities across multiple phonetic environments.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

Emily¹,

Yavaş²

2017

PLoS ONE

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“…Schwas in certain derivational allomorphs have demonstrated more stable spectrographic measurements than other types of schwa (e.g. "deletable" schwas (Byers and Yavas, 2016). Examples of these types of "stable" schwas include schwa in the past tense morpheme {ed} as in "chided" [ʧaɪdəd] (Goldstein, 2011) and schwa in the possessive morpheme {-̓ s} following a sibilant as in "Marsha's" [marʃəz] (Burzio, 2007).…”

Section: Spectral Qualities Of Schwamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Semantic emphasis naturally correlates with stress, which is characterized by elongated vowels among other features (Beaver et al, 2007). Though carrier sentences allow researchers to tightly control the stimuli, there is a risk that measurements may not reflect typical schwa durations observed in more natural sentence structure (Byers and Yavas, 2016;Klatt and Cooper, 1975).…”

Section: Temporal Qualities Of Schwamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vowel reduction patterns of early Spanish- English bilinguals receiving continuous L1 and L2 input

Emily

2017

Topics in Linguistics

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This study investigates the production of three morphophonetic variations of schwa in American English: the plural allomorph {-s} as in watches, the possessive allomorph {-s} as in Sasha’s, and word-finally as in Russia. The production of these three allomorphs were examined in Miami’s English monolingual and early Spanish-English bilingual populations. Our purpose was to determine how native-like early Spanish-English bilinguals′ spectral qualities and reduced vowel durations were compared to Miami English monolinguals during a reading task. Results indicate that early bilinguals′ reduced vowels followed the same overall pattern as monolinguals, but had different acoustic properties.

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Polysyllabic shortening in Spanish-English bilingual children

Gibson

Bernales

2019

International Journal of Bilingualism

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Aims and objectives: Polysyllabic shortening is thought to contribute to the perception of stress-timed rhythm in some languages. Little is known about its use in the speech of children exposed to a language that incorporates it more frequently (e.g. English) and one that incorporates it less frequently (e.g. Spanish). The purpose of the current investigation was to explore polysyllabic shortening in bilingual children’s two languages compared to monolingual Spanish and English comparison groups. Method/Design: We performed a group-level, cross-sectional study comparing the magnitude of polysyllabic shortening for monolingual English- and Spanish-speaking children and Spanish-English bilingual children. Data/Analysis: Sixteen monolingual English speakers, 23 monolingual Spanish speakers, and 16 Spanish-English bilingual speakers produced two- and four-syllable words in English only, Spanish only, or both English and Spanish, respectively. Ages ranged from 4;5 to 7;7 ( M = 5;10, SD = 7 months). English and Spanish words had the same syllable shapes and primary stress locations. Articulation rate was measured by syllables per second. A language history questionnaire and standardized vocabulary test were also administered. Comparisons were made both between and within groups. Results: Both monolingual English and Spanish speakers utilized polysyllabic shortening to similar degrees. Bilingual children produced polysyllabic shortening in English and Spanish to the same degree as their monolingual peers, but they produced it to a greater degree in their own Spanish than in their own English. Conclusion: Polysyllabic shortening might be a universal feature of speech that results from universal phonetic constraints. For the bilingual children, greater use of polysyllabic shortening in Spanish than English may be related to better Spanish than English articulatory control.

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Durational variability of schwa in early and late Spanish–English bilinguals

Cited by 5 publications

References 41 publications

Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

Vowel reduction patterns of early Spanish- English bilinguals receiving continuous L1 and L2 input

Polysyllabic shortening in Spanish-English bilingual children

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