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Phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo)

  • Kayla Palakurthy ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: June 17, 2022
Linguistics Vanguard
From the journal Linguistics Vanguard Volume 8 Issue s5

Abstract

Research on bilingual populations finds that phonetic transfer between languages is common, especially in similar sounds. Yet, phonetic studies that include bilingual speakers of Indigenous languages remain rare. This paper analyzes phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo), a Dene language indigenous to North America. Specifically, I examine the evidence for intergenerational change and convergence with English in the release period durations of Diné affricated stops [kx, tx]. The analysis is based on tokens of Diné [kx, tx] and English [kh, th] extracted from recent interviews with 51 Diné-English bilinguals. Release durations of targeted sounds are measured, compared with earlier analogous measurements, and statistically analyzed to assess age effects. Participants, especially younger speakers, are predicted to produce Diné [kx, tx] with shorter releases than earlier measurements, and with releases that align more with similar English sounds. Data confirm that speakers pronounce Diné [kx], but not [tx], with shorter durations; younger participants also produce [kx] with the shortest releases, and with durations closest to English [kh]. Results suggest that perceptual similarity between velar sounds leads to phonetic convergence, but alveolar sounds are sufficiently distinct to prevent transfer. Together, findings attest to the relevance of minority language contexts to theories of bilingual phonology.

Keywords: bilingualism; Diné Bizaad (Navajo); phonetics
Corresponding author: Kayla Palakurthy, Linguistics, University of California, Davis, CA, USA, E-mail

Funding source: National Science Foundation

Award Identifier / Grant number: Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant/1, Graduate Research Fellowship Program/2014178334, Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Postdoct

Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the National Science Foundation (GRFP 2014178334; DDIG 1713793; SPRF 1907948). Thank you to the Diné participants; to Barsine Benally, Louise Ramone, and Melvatha Chee for their help in recruiting; and to Marianne Mithun, Matthew Gordon, Eric Campbell, and Lorene B. Legah for feedback on earlier versions of this analysis.

Appendix A: Examples of tokens of the relevant sounds

(1)
Diné [tx] [audio-1.wav]
Sé t ał. [sɪtxaɬ]
sé-tał
1singular.perfective-perfective.kick.it
‘I kicked it.’[4]
(2)
Diné [t] [audio-2.wav]
Sé d á. [sɪta]
sé-dá
1singular.perfective-perfective.sit
‘I sit.’
(3)
English [th] [audio-3.wav]
for some t ime [fəɹ sʌm t h aɪm]
(4)
Diné [kx] [audio-4.wav]
’Atoo’ naa deesh k ááł. [ʔathoːʔ naː tɛːʃkxaːɬ]
’atoo’ n-aa deesh-kááł
stew you-to 1singular.future-future.carry.open.container
‘I will bring you stew.’ (Elsie Whitehorse Walck Interview 00:15:31)[5]
(5)
Diné [k] [audio-5.wav]
g ah [kah]
gah
‘rabbit’ (Elsie Whitehorse Walck Interview 00:08:59)
(6)
English [kh] [audio-6.wav]
of where they c ome from [əv ɰeɪɹ ðeɪ k h ʌm fɹʌm]
(Elsie Whitehorse Walck Interview 00:42:01)

Appendix B: Statistical model output

Table 6:

Random effects output.

Group Name Variance Standard deviation N
Words (Intercept) 102.7 10.13 94
Speaker (Intercept) 229.3 15.14 51
Residual 496.9 22.29
Table 7:

Fixed effects output.

Estimate Standard error df t value
(Intercept) [kx], C_, Following vowel a, Middle-aged, Discourse 99.44 4.46 177.62 22.28
Segment [tx] [tx] 22.91 3.10 66.85 7.38
Phonetic environment Word-initial −15.58 3.39 2,021.42 −4.60
V_V 10.08 2.61 1,469.06 3.86
Age Older −2.92 5.67 90.36 −0.52
Younger −21.43 4.32 897.04 −4.96
Source Words 1.32 2.61 1,922.35 0.50
Following vowel e −5.19 4.02 60.28 −1.29
i 0.51 4.24 58.77 0.12
o 1.38 4.39 103.67 0.32
Segment*Age [tx]:Older −3.26 2.10 2,851.76 −1.55
[tx]:Younger 5.89 2.20 2,844.74 2.68
Age*Source Older:Words −6.62 2.65 2,865.08 −2.50
Younger:Words −0.55 2.88 2,896.20 −0.19
Phonetic environment*Source Word-initial:Words 7.89 3.44 2,485.40 2.30
V_V:Words −5.56 2.97 2,054.81 −1.87
Age*Following vowel Older:e 4.59 2.81 2,852.75 1.63
Younger:e 5.44 3.02 2,851.02 1.80
Older:i 5.29 2.88 2,846.08 1.84
Younger:i 9.07 2.98 2,854.45 3.04
Older:o 4.44 2.85 2,854.09 1.56
Younger:o 11.97 3.06 2,842.52 3.91

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Supplementary Material

The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2021-0015).

Received: 2021-01-29
Accepted: 2021-06-15
Published Online: 2022-06-17

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Introduction to sound change in endangered or small speech communities
  4. Where have all the sound changes gone? Phonological stability and mechanisms of sound change
  5. Where have all the sound changes gone? Examining the scarcity of evidence for regular sound change in Australian languages
  6. Cross-dialectal synchronic variation of a diachronic conditioned merger in Tlingit
  7. Vowel harmony in Laz Turkish: a case study in language contact and language change
  8. The evolution of tonally conditioned allomorphy in Triqui: evidence from spontaneous speech corpora
  9. Sound change and gender-based differences in isolated regions: acoustic analysis of intervocalic phonemic stops by Bora-Spanish bilinguals
  10. Place uniformity and drift in the Suzhounese fricative and apical vowels
  11. Flexibility and evolution of cue weighting after a tonal split: an experimental field study on Tamang
  12. The emergence of bunched vowels from retroflex approximants in endangered Dardic languages
  13. The expanding influence of Thai and its effects on cue redistribution in Kuy
  14. Speech style variation in an endangered language
  15. Sound change in Aboriginal Australia: word-initial engma deletion in Kunwok
  16. The dental-alveolar contrast in Mapudungun: loss, preservation, and extension
  17. Sound change or community change? The speech community in sound change studies: a case study of Scottish Gaelic
  18. Phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo)
  19. The evolution of flap-nasalization in Hoocąk
  20. Sound change and tonogenesis in Sylheti
  21. Exploring variation and change in a small-scale Indigenous society: the case of (s) in Pirahã
  22. Rhotics, /uː/, and diphthongization in New Braunfels German
  23. Generational differences in the low tones of Black Lahu
https://doi.org/10.1515/lingvan-2021-0015
Keywords for this article
bilingualism; Diné Bizaad (Navajo); phonetics

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Introduction to sound change in endangered or small speech communities
  4. Where have all the sound changes gone? Phonological stability and mechanisms of sound change
  5. Where have all the sound changes gone? Examining the scarcity of evidence for regular sound change in Australian languages
  6. Cross-dialectal synchronic variation of a diachronic conditioned merger in Tlingit
  7. Vowel harmony in Laz Turkish: a case study in language contact and language change
  8. The evolution of tonally conditioned allomorphy in Triqui: evidence from spontaneous speech corpora
  9. Sound change and gender-based differences in isolated regions: acoustic analysis of intervocalic phonemic stops by Bora-Spanish bilinguals
  10. Place uniformity and drift in the Suzhounese fricative and apical vowels
  11. Flexibility and evolution of cue weighting after a tonal split: an experimental field study on Tamang
  12. The emergence of bunched vowels from retroflex approximants in endangered Dardic languages
  13. The expanding influence of Thai and its effects on cue redistribution in Kuy
  14. Speech style variation in an endangered language
  15. Sound change in Aboriginal Australia: word-initial engma deletion in Kunwok
  16. The dental-alveolar contrast in Mapudungun: loss, preservation, and extension
  17. Sound change or community change? The speech community in sound change studies: a case study of Scottish Gaelic
  18. Phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo)
  19. The evolution of flap-nasalization in Hoocąk
  20. Sound change and tonogenesis in Sylheti
  21. Exploring variation and change in a small-scale Indigenous society: the case of (s) in Pirahã
  22. Rhotics, /uː/, and diphthongization in New Braunfels German
  23. Generational differences in the low tones of Black Lahu
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