Reduced vowel production in American English among Spanish-English bilinguals

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

“…The current study examines English monolingual and early sequential Spanish-English bilinguals' vowel reduction patterns for three phonetic environments that have been described as phonologically conditioned to produce schwa at any speech tempo: schwa in the plural morpheme as in "watches" [wɑʧəz]; in the possessive morpheme as in Lisa's [lisəz]; and word-finally as in "ninja" [nInʤə] (Nevins, 2011). To establish category boundaries for reduced vowel qualities, we have chosen the spectral measurements "height" (corresponding to F1 formant bands), "backness" (F2 formants), overall position in the oral cavity measured as F2-F1Hz (Barlow et al, 2013;Byers, 2012;Byers and Yavas, 2016), and vowel duration (c.f. Jones, 1922).…”

“…Where coarticulatory effects from neighboring consonants are observed, schwa may be produced as little more than a burst of air serving the purpose of preserving the prosody of running speech (Shockey, 2008). Coarticulatory effects due to surrounding consonants have also been shown to heavily influence both the spectral and temporal characteristics of schwa (Browman and Goldstein, 1992;Byers, 2012;Flemming, 2009;Flemming and Johnson, 2007;Gahl et al, 2012;Kondo, 1994;Van Bergam, 1994). For example, schwa has been observed to be higher and more fronted before labial consonants and more posterior before velar consonants (Stevens and House, 1964;Kondo, 1994).…”

“…We also introduce a critical comparison that is lacking from prior studies in that we compare bilinguals' schwas to Miamibased English monolinguals, rather than evaluate Spanish-English bilinguals' phonetic output compared to generally accepted vowel reduction norms in gAE (Byers, 2012;Flemming and Johnson, 2007;Klatt, 1976;Olive et al, 1993;Umeda, 1975). We have collected a sizeable sample of reduced vowel productions from English monolinguals who live and work in Miami -a majority bilingual and bicultural metropolitan area of the United States.…”

“…Lastly, by taking measurements of reduced vowel qualities from Miami English monolinguals, we strive for a more ecologically valid set of measurements for comparing the native-like quality of Miamibased early bilinguals' schwa productions to English monolinguals (Burzio, 2007;Byers, 2012;Enzinna, 2016;Lopez, 2015;Ronquest, 2013).…”

“…Our primary research question adds to the contemporary body of phonetic studies that are cataloguing the features of Miami English by exploring whether monolingual English speakers who have lived many years in a multilingual environment can maintain categorical distinctions between schwa in the plural and possessive morphemes as well as word-finally (Flemming and Johnson, 2007). If Miami English monolinguals exhibit signs of blurring these phonetically discrete categories (Byers, 2012;Flemming, 2009;Flemming and Johnson, 2007), this feature suggests that one feature of "Miami English" is targetlessness with regard to vowel reduction 1 (Carter and Lynch, 2015;Enzinna, 2015). While other dialects of English may maintain or blur schwa values due to other factors (including speaking rate, nasalization etc.…”