Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech
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Jan Patrick Zeller
Abstract
Due to the intensive and extensive contact of Belarusian and Russian, mixed Belarusian-Russian speech is a widespread phenomenon in the linguistic landscape of Belarus today. Along with features on other linguistic levels, phonetic-phonological features that differ between both languages appear as variants in such mixed speech. This paper reports an acoustical analysis of three sibilant variables (sj), (tj) and (ʧ j) in instances of mixed speech spoken by 27 speakers. For (sj) and (tj), Center of Gravity calculations suggest a more posterior place of articulation for older speakers and a less posterior one for younger speakers. This is interpreted as a shift towards a more Russian-like pronunciation of younger speakers, which can be explained by an earlier and more intensive exposure to Russian. While no such intergenerational difference is found for (ʧ j), there is a relation between the realization of the two affricates (tj) and (ʧ j), suggesting some general principle of keeping distances between sibilants large enough.
Abstract
Due to the intensive and extensive contact of Belarusian and Russian, mixed Belarusian-Russian speech is a widespread phenomenon in the linguistic landscape of Belarus today. Along with features on other linguistic levels, phonetic-phonological features that differ between both languages appear as variants in such mixed speech. This paper reports an acoustical analysis of three sibilant variables (sj), (tj) and (ʧ j) in instances of mixed speech spoken by 27 speakers. For (sj) and (tj), Center of Gravity calculations suggest a more posterior place of articulation for older speakers and a less posterior one for younger speakers. This is interpreted as a shift towards a more Russian-like pronunciation of younger speakers, which can be explained by an earlier and more intensive exposure to Russian. While no such intergenerational difference is found for (ʧ j), there is a relation between the realization of the two affricates (tj) and (ʧ j), suggesting some general principle of keeping distances between sibilants large enough.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Where is syntactic variation? 1
- Phonological variation in Catalan and Alemannic from a typological perspective 27
- Language ideologies and language attitudes 45
- Late language acquisition and identity construction 57
- The variation of gender agreement on numerals in the Alpine space 69
- ‘Standard usage’ 83
- Code alternation patterns in bilingual family conversations 117
- A variationist approach to syntactic change 129
- Children’s switching/shifting competence in role-playing 145
- The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited 159
- Chain shifts revisited 173
- And the beat goes on 187
- Migrant teenagers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 201
- The sociophonology and sociophonetics of Scottish Standard English (r) 215
- Stance and code-switching 229
- A town between dialects 247
- Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech 267
- The case of [nən] 281
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction vii
- Where is syntactic variation? 1
- Phonological variation in Catalan and Alemannic from a typological perspective 27
- Language ideologies and language attitudes 45
- Late language acquisition and identity construction 57
- The variation of gender agreement on numerals in the Alpine space 69
- ‘Standard usage’ 83
- Code alternation patterns in bilingual family conversations 117
- A variationist approach to syntactic change 129
- Children’s switching/shifting competence in role-playing 145
- The Present Perfect in Cypriot Greek revisited 159
- Chain shifts revisited 173
- And the beat goes on 187
- Migrant teenagers’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation 201
- The sociophonology and sociophonetics of Scottish Standard English (r) 215
- Stance and code-switching 229
- A town between dialects 247
- Variation of sibilants in Belarusian-Russian mixed speech 267
- The case of [nən] 281
- Index 295
