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Transfer Effects in Multilingual Language Development
Edited by Hagen Peukert
[Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 4] 2015
► pp. 87–108

Foreign accent in heritage speakers of Turkish in Germany

ORCID logo | University of Hamburg
ORCID logo | University of Hamburg
| Yildiz Technical University
| University of Hamburg

The present study is concerned with global foreign accent (FA) in heritage speakers (HS). Specifically, we investigate whether (i) HS acquire a native accent in both languages and (ii) whether age of onset (AoO) is relevant. FA was examined in 21 adult HS of Turkish in Germany (AoO in German 0–9 years). FA was assessed for both languages with 15 monolingual raters judging speech samples of 10 seconds. Speakers were divided into two groups: Simultaneous bilinguals (2L1ers) with AoO in German before age 3 vs. early second language learners (eL2ers) with AoO in German after age 4. Our analysis revealed that most speakers had a native accent in one language and a foreign accent in the other, independently of AoO.

Keywords: Germany, global foreign accent (FA), heritage speakers (HS), Turkish
Published online: 29 April 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hsld.4.04sta
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