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Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 12:2 (2022) ► pp.103–132

Asymmetrical cross-language phonetic interaction

Phonological implications

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Two acoustic studies were carried out with L1 Polish learners of English. One study examined L1 phonetic drift, comparing learners of L2 English who were undergoing intensive L2 phonetic training with quasi-monolingual Polish speakers. The other study looked at L2 acquisition, comparing learners at two different levels of proficiency. Unlike most previous studies of Polish-English bilinguals, VOT data of both voiced and voiceless consonants were analyzed. In both experiments, an asymmetry was observed by which voiced stops were more susceptible to cross-language phonetic influence (CLI) than voiceless stops. These results build on evidence of a similar asymmetry observed in a number of other L1–L2 pairings. Predictions of competing phonological models are evaluated with regard to equivalence classification and phonetic CLI. It is shown that both traditional approaches to the phonological representation of voice contrasts fail to predict the observed asymmetry. An alternative theory, which predicts the asymmetry, is discussed.

Keywords: Polish-English bilinguals, phonetics and phonology, laryngeal features, VOT, Onset Prominence
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Laryngeal contrasts and bilingual speech – a brief review
    • 2.1Findings involving voiceless stops
    • 2.2CLI in voiced vs. voiceless stops
  • 3.Laryngeal phonology and asymmetrical CLI
  • 4.The phonetics of laryngeal contrasts in Polish and English
  • 5.Study 1: Asymmetrical L1 phonetic drift in the speech of Polish learners of English
    • 5.1Participants
    • 5.2Materials and procedure
    • 5.3Acoustic and statistical analysis
    • 5.4Results
    • 5.5Discussion
  • 6.Study 2: Asymmetrical achievement in L2 phonological acquisition
    • 6.1Participants
    • 6.2Materials, procedure and analysis
    • 6.3Results
    • 6.4Discussion
  • 7.General discussion – voicing without [voice]
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 9 October 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.19092.sch
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