Phonetic interactions in the bilingual production of Galician and Spanish /e/ and /o/

Abstract

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions:

This study investigates the cross-linguistic phonetic interactions in the production of closed mid vowels of Galician-Spanish bilinguals in a semi-urban area in Galicia. The research questions were: (1) Do Galician-Spanish bilinguals produce /e/ and /o/ similarly in their two languages? (2) Does language dominance influence whether these sounds are produced more like Spanish or more like Galician? (3) Do age and gender influence the bilingual production of Galician and Spanish /e/ and /o/?

Design/methodology/approach:

Thirty Galician-Spanish bilinguals from the western coast of Galicia completed a sociolinguistic questionnaire and two reading tasks in both Galician and Spanish.

Data and analysis:

4,728 vowels were acoustically analyzed and submitted to several mixed effect statistical models.

Findings/conclusions:

Bilinguals in this study produce distinct phonetic categories for their four Galician mid vowels, and additionally have created new phonetic categories to accommodate their L2 (Spanish) vowels, resulting in a more crowded mid-vowel phonetic space.

Originality:

This is the first study to examine closed mid vowel realizations in both Spanish and Galician by bilinguals who maintain a Galician four mid-vowel contrast, and to investigate their complex L1-L2 phonetic interactions.

Significance/implications:

This study offers new data to examine how early bilinguals organize their phonetic system(s) through cross-linguistic assimilation and dissimilation.