Variation in the lexical distribution and implementation of phonetically similar phonemes in Catalan

Abstract

A B S T R A C TIn some Romance languages with two pairs of mid vowel phonemes, it is acknowledged that these contrasts are somewhat unstable. We analyze the distribution and realization of the anterior and posterior mid vowels in Catalan to test claims (mostly based on anecdotal evidence) that these contrasts exhibit inter-and intraspeaker variability. Participants produced target words containing stressed mid vowels and, later, judged vowel height (/e/ vs. /ɛ/; /o/ vs. /ɔ/) in the same words. The results indicate that, even intradialectally, the distribution of mid vowels is somewhat variable, with speakers showing only moderate agreement in the distribution of phonemic vowels. In addition, speakers are not always consistent in their realization of mid vowels when they produce the same word (probably indicating weak phonolexical representations). Interspeaker variation was also observed in the phonetic implementation of the contrasts. The results indicate that the Catalan mid vowel contrasts, like those in other Romance languages, are weaker and less stable than other phonological oppositions.

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

“…In contrast, we elicited our data in a cued picture naming task in the present study, in which the participants needed to activate isolated lexical representations. Moreover, the lack of contrast observed here could have been caused by the selection of different lexical items, a factor that has previously been shown to be critical for Catalan mid-vowels (Nadeu & Renwick, 2016). However, despite some variation in the items used across the studies, all three contain highly similar materials, with bisyllabic words used in virtually all instances.…”

“…/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.…”

Phonetic Distinctiveness vs. Lexical Contrastiveness in Non-Robust Phonemic Contrasts

“…To the extent that they hear a mixture of regional varieties in their daily lives (e.g., in large cities and via national broadcast media), many speakers will have the experience of ignoring mid vowel quality in making lexical identifications during normal speech comprehension. Although the limited functional load of the phonetic distinction and the general redundancy of the speech signal ensure that misunderstandings will almost never arise, this variation could contribute to a weakening of their phonological representations and intuitions, as has recently been suggested for Catalan (Nadeu & Renwick, 2016).…”

“…Our aim, then, is not to investigate questions of dialectology or sociolinguistics, but to see whether there are generalizations to be drawn about the manifestations of phonological closeness in the behavior of individual speakers, regardless of where they come from. The heart of our methodology is to link individual speakers' pronunciations to their own judgments of mid vowel height, a technique also used for Catalan mid vowels by Nadeu and Renwick (2016). Our specific research questions included the following:…”

Marginal Contrast Among Romanian Vowels: Evidence from ASR and Functional Load

“…Increasingly, however, close analysis of the relationships among sounds has revealed gradient, even marginal, phonological contrasts. Evidence comes from speech production [1,2,3], speech perception [4,5] and via sounds' distribution in the language, particularly functional load [6,7]. Functional load is estimated with measures that consider how languages use particular contrasts, i.e.…”