The phonetics of code-switched vowels

• Autores: Kasia Muldner, Leah Hoiting, Leyna Sanger, Lev Blumenfeld, Ida Toivonen
• Localización: International Journal of Bilingualism: interdisciplinary studies of multilingual behaviour, ISSN 1367-0069, Vol. 23, Nº. 1, 2019, págs. 37-52
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Aims and Objectives:

    This study investigates the effects of code-switching on vowel quality, pitch and duration among English–French bilinguals. Code-switching has been claimed to influence the morphology, syntax and lexicon, but not the phonology of the switched language. However, studies on voice-onset time have found subtle phonetic effects of code-switching, even though there are no categorical phonological effects. We investigate this further through the following three questions: (1) Are F1 and F2 influenced in the process of code-switching? (2) Are code-switched words hyper-articulated? (3) Does code-switching have an effect on vowel duration before voiced and voiceless consonants? Methodology:

    To address our research questions we relied on an insertional switching method where words from one language were inserted into carrier phrases of the other to simulate English–French code-switching environments. Bilingual speakers were recorded while they read code-switched sentences as well as sentences that did not involve code-switching, that is, monolingual sentences.

    Data and Analysis:

    The vowels of target words in the recorded utterances were compared – code-switched contexts against monolingual contexts – for vocalic duration, F0, F1 and F2.

    Findings/Conclusions:

    Like previous voice-onset time studies, our results indicate that code-switching does not shift the phonology to that of the embedded language. We did, however, find subtle lower level phonetic effects, especially in the French target words; we also found evidence of hyper-articulation in code-switched words. At the prosodic level, target switch-words approached the prosodic contours of the carrier phrases they are embedded in.

    Originality:

    The approach taken in this study is novel for its investigation of vowel properties instead of voice-onset time.

    Significance:

    This new approach to investigating code-switching adds to our understanding of how code-switching affects pronunciation.