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Article published In:
Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 5:3 (2015) ► pp.356–378

Morphological variation in the speech of Frisian-Dutch bilinguals

(Dis)similarity of linking suffixes and plural endings

| Radboud University Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies
| Fryske Akademy | University of Amsterdam
| Fryske Akademy
| Radboud University Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies
| Radboud University Nijmegen, Centre for Language Studies
| Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Centre for Cognition

In standard Dutch, the plural suffix -en is homographic and homophonic with the linking suffix -en (boek+en “books”, boek+en+kast “bookcase”), both being pronounced as schwa. In Frisian, there is neither homography nor homophony (boek+en “books”, pronounced with syllabic nasal; boek+e+kast “bookcase”, pronounced with a linking schwa). Seeing that many areas of Frisian grammar are subject to interference from Dutch, we investigated whether Frisian-Dutch bilinguals exhibit interference from Dutch with respect to the linking suffix during Frisian speech production. Two types of Frisian-Dutch bilinguals emerged: Speakers who had Dutch as their first language tended to maintain the Dutch system of homophony between plural and linking suffixes when speaking Frisian, by using the Frisian plural as a linking morpheme. Speakers who had Frisian as their first language often maintained the Frisian system of no homophony when speaking Frisian. The implications for morphological theories are discussed.

Keywords: bilingualism, speech production, Frisian, Dutch, compounds, linking suffixes
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Goals of this study
    • 1.2Frisian-Dutch bilingualism
    • 1.3Plural suffix and linking suffix
    • 1.4Regular inflection and word formation
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Stimuli and design
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Basic results
    • 3.2Phrases versus compounds
    • 3.3Influence of mother tongue
      • 3.3.1Introduction
      • 3.3.2Distribution of individual pronunciation scores
      • 3.3.3Associations of pronunciation types with mother tongue
    • 3.4Geographical contrast
  • 4.General discussion of bilingual speech processing
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Appendix A
  • Appendix B
  • References
Published online: 24 July 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.5.3.03han
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