Phonetic drift reveals interconnected phonological representations in simultaneous bilinguals: A case study of English and Czech stop consonants

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F68081740%3A_____%2F21%3A00536628" target="_blank" >RIV/68081740:_____/21:00536628 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/61989592:15210/21:73600984

Result on the web

<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1367006920932211" target="_blank" >https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1367006920932211</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367006920932211" target="_blank" >10.1177/1367006920932211</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Phonetic drift reveals interconnected phonological representations in simultaneous bilinguals: A case study of English and Czech stop consonants

Original language description

Purpose: The interconnectedness of phonological categories between the two languages of early bilinguals has previously been explored using single-probe speech production and perception data. Our goal was to tap into bilingual phonological representations in another way, namely via monitoring instances of phonetic drift due to changes in language exposure. Design: We report a case study of two teenage English-Czech simultaneous bilinguals who live in Canada and spend summers in Czechia (Czech Republic). Voice onset time (VOT) of word-initial voiced and voiceless stops was measured upon the bilinguals' arrival to and before their departure from a two-month stay in Czechia. Data and Analysis: Each bilingual read the same set of 71 Czech and 58 English stop-initial target words (and additional fillers) at each time of measurement. The measured VOT values were submitted to linear mixed effects models, assessing the effects of target language, measurement time, and underlying voicing. Findings/Conclusions: After the immersion in a Czech-speaking environment, for both speakers the count of voiced stops realized as prevoiced (i.e., having negative VOT) increased and the measured VOT of voiced stops (appearing different for English and Czech initially) drifted towards more negative (more Czech-like) values in both languages, while no change was detected for the voiceless stops of either English (aspirated) or Czech (unaspirated). The results suggest that the bilinguals maintain three-way VOT distinctions, differentiating voiceless aspirated (English), voiceless unaspirated (Czech), and voiced (English-Czech) stops, with connected bilingual representations of the voiced categories. Originality: Data on phonetic drift in simultaneous bilinguals proficient in their two languages have not previously been published. Significance/Implications: We show that observing phonetic shifts due to changes in the ambient linguistic environment can be revealing about the organization of phonological space in simultaneous bilinguals.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Project

<a href="/en/project/GA18-01799S" target="_blank" >GA18-01799S: The effect of talker accent on speech sound learning in infants</a><br>

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

International Journal of Bilingualism

ISSN

1367-0069

e-ISSN

1756-6878

Volume of the periodical

25

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

11

Pages from-to

789-799

UT code for WoS article

000542286000001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85086510112