Mapping the Patterns of Maintenance versus Merger in Bilingual Phonology
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Barbara E. Bullock
Abstract
This acoustic investigation focuses on the preservation of the two low French vowels /a/ vs. /ɑ/ within a vowel system that otherwise manifests striking convergent properties with English. Our acoustic data demonstrate that this inherited contrast is preserved, with a distribution largely reflective of conservative French, despite various pressures on our speakers that might cause them to alter their phonetic categories in a language contact situation (in the sense of Flege 1987). The larger picture that emerges is that in contact situations we observe a complex pattern of transfer versus maintenance that cannot be accounted for via any of the current models of bilingual phonology – models driven by language internal pressures such as level differences between phonology and phonetics, sound similarity, functional load, or universal statements of markedness.
Abstract
This acoustic investigation focuses on the preservation of the two low French vowels /a/ vs. /ɑ/ within a vowel system that otherwise manifests striking convergent properties with English. Our acoustic data demonstrate that this inherited contrast is preserved, with a distribution largely reflective of conservative French, despite various pressures on our speakers that might cause them to alter their phonetic categories in a language contact situation (in the sense of Flege 1987). The larger picture that emerges is that in contact situations we observe a complex pattern of transfer versus maintenance that cannot be accounted for via any of the current models of bilingual phonology – models driven by language internal pressures such as level differences between phonology and phonetics, sound similarity, functional load, or universal statements of markedness.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- An Acoustic Basis for Palatal Geminate Behavior in Spanish 1
- Mapping the Patterns of Maintenance versus Merger in Bilingual Phonology 15
- New Tendencies in Geographical Dialectology 31
- Output-to-output Correspondence and the Emergence of the Unmarked in Spanish Plural Formation 49
- Mapping French Pronunciation 65
- Phonological Variability in the Laboratory 83
- Constraint Re-ranking in Three Grammars 97
- Mid Vowels and Schwa in Eastern Catalan 113
- The Nominal Stress System of Romanian (re)revisited 127
- Proto-Romance Stress Shift Revisited 141
- Final -m in Yucatan Spanish 155
- Stressed Enclitics? 167
- How To Do Things Without Junk 183
- Subject Index 207
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- An Acoustic Basis for Palatal Geminate Behavior in Spanish 1
- Mapping the Patterns of Maintenance versus Merger in Bilingual Phonology 15
- New Tendencies in Geographical Dialectology 31
- Output-to-output Correspondence and the Emergence of the Unmarked in Spanish Plural Formation 49
- Mapping French Pronunciation 65
- Phonological Variability in the Laboratory 83
- Constraint Re-ranking in Three Grammars 97
- Mid Vowels and Schwa in Eastern Catalan 113
- The Nominal Stress System of Romanian (re)revisited 127
- Proto-Romance Stress Shift Revisited 141
- Final -m in Yucatan Spanish 155
- Stressed Enclitics? 167
- How To Do Things Without Junk 183
- Subject Index 207
