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Phonetic Influence from the Minority Language
Abstract
American Israelis are an understudied but regionally important population in Israel, who use American English as a heritage language. Most heritage language situations previously studied investigate low-status heritage languages rather than high-status heritage languages which function as languages of wider communication. Does the majority language (i.e., Modern Hebrew) influence the minority language (i.e., American English) in this unusual case, as predicted by previous research? This question is investigated through a picture-naming task comparing the speech acoustics of stop production in American English heritage speakers, American olim (i.e., immigrants), and native Hebrew speakers. Results reveal a heritage accent in Modern Hebrew rather than American English, with crosslinguistic influence from the minority language to the majority language. This unexpected result is explained using Flege and Bohn (2021)’s Revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r), which argues that phones in a bilingual’s phonetic system are linked, allowing for, and even predicting, this type of crosslinguistic influence.
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Here we present the revised Speech learning model (SLM-r), an individual differences model which aims to account for how phonetic systems reorganize over the life span in response to the phonetic input received during naturalistic second language (L2) learning. The SLM-r proposes that the mechanisms and processes needed for native language (L1) acquisition remain accessible for use in L2 learning across the life span. By hypothesis, the formation or non-formation of new phonetic categories for L2 sounds will depend on the precision of L1 categories at the time L2 learning begins, the perceived phonetic dissimilarity of an L2 sound from the closest L1 sound, and the quantity and quality of L2 input that has been received. According to the SLM-r, the phonetic categories making up the L1 and L2 phonetic subsystems interact with one another dynamically and are updated whenever the statistical properties of the input distributions defining L1, L2, and composite L1-L2 categories (diaphones) change.
Pomerano is a scarcely researched variety of Low German, which was brought to Southern Brazil by large groups of immigrants from former Pomerania in the 1850s. Today, the language is still used in situations of informal communication in the respective communities, along with the majority language, Brazilian Portuguese (BP). The long-lasting contact between Pomerano and BP has left several traces in both languages at all linguistic levels, including segmental phonology. Our study examines the Voice Onset Time (VOT) patterns of stop consonants in the two languages spoken by bilinguals. Control data gathered from monolingually raised speakers of BP are taken into account. The language pair under investigation displays the typical Germanic vs. Romance contrast, in that the phonological fortis-lenis opposition is phonetically realized by means of a long vs. short lag distinction in Pomerano, whereas BP exhibits a voicing lead for the lenis stops and a short lag for their fortis counterparts. Based on production data collected using a picture naming task in Pomerode (Santa Catarina, Brazil), it is shown that both elderly and younger speakers show the expected Germanic contrast in Pomerano. Regarding BP, the monolingual speakers present the typical Romance contrast, while the younger bilinguals display a mixed system in that they pre-voice /b d ɡ/, but aspirate the voiceless stops. The older bilinguals, finally, use the same Germanic contrast in both of their languages, thus showing massive transfer from Pom-erano to BP. Referring to Labov's concept of overt vs. covert prestige, we argue that the latter, as becomes manifest in the stressing of a 'Germanic' feature of pronunciation, operates within both generations, although its effect can be felt with less intensity among the younger bilinguals.
The English language education policy in Israel is shaped by the varying social meanings of the language throughout the country’s history. The chapter begins with a brief historical sketch that tracks the formation of these social meanings, from the British Mandate of Palestine, which imposed English as an official language (alongside Arabic and Hebrew), through the rise of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel, where English was excluded and regarded as the language of British imperialism, to the current state of affairs, in which American influence is strong and English is regarded as an asset in a globalized world. Implications of the prolonged Israeli-Arab conflict on the status of English in Israel are also considered. Following the historical sketch, aspects of the English language in Israeli society and education are discussed, including issues of social and economic inequality, exposure to English in the mass media, and minority populations with particular needs and difficulties such as Israeli Palestinian (Arab) students, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and immigrants. We conclude the chapter by discussing ways in which the Israeli educational system can address the multiple social meanings, uses, and manifestations of the language, as well as the specific needs and capabilities of different types of learners.
In bilinguals and second language learners, the native (L1) and nonnative (L2) languages coexist and interact. The L1 influences L2 production via forward transfer, as is seen with foreign accents. However, language transfer is bidirectional: even brief experience with an L2 can affect L1 production, via backward transfer. Here, we review the growing literature on backward transfer at the phonetic level and identify various factors that modulate it. Indeed, a multitude of interrelated factors have been shown to determine the strength of backward transfer, including L2 related factors (age of L2 acquisition, L2 pronunciation skill and proficiency, stage of learning, immersion), L1 related factors (amount and circumstances of L1 use), and factors related to both L1 and L2 (language similarity and individual differences). Controlled longitudinal, laboratory studies are required in conjunction with naturalistic ones to tease apart the influences of these different factors on L1 speech.
Aims and objectives
In this study, we investigated crosslinguistic influence in the phonetic systems of simultaneous bilinguals (2L1s) during adulthood.
Methodology
Specifically, we analyzed the voice onset time (VOT) of the voiceless stop /k/ in the spontaneous speech of 14 German–French bilinguals who grew up in France or Germany. We looked at both languages, first comparing the groups, second comparing their VOT to their global accent.
Data and analysis
The material consisted of interviews, lasting for about half an hour.
Findings/conclusions
Most 2L1s showed distinct VOT-ranges in their two languages, even if they were perceived to have a foreign accent in the minority language of their childhood environment. We conclude that the phonetic systems of 2L1s remain separate and stable throughout the lifespan. However, the 2L1s from France had significantly shorter VOTs in German than the 2L1s from Germany, and their speech was overall more accented. These findings are discussed with respect to the role of intra- and extra-linguistic factors.
Originality
Our study adds a new perspective to existing VOT studies of bilinguals by using naturalistic speech data and by comparing two groups of 2L1s who have the same language combination but grew up in different countries, which allows us to evaluate the impact of their childhood environment on VOT development.
Significance/implications
Language exposure during childhood seems to be beneficial for pronunciation during adulthood.
Maximum likelihood or restricted maximum likelihood (REML) estimates of the
parameters in linear mixed-effects models can be determined using the lmer
function in the lme4 package for R. As for most model-fitting functions in R,
the model is described in an lmer call by a formula, in this case including
both fixed- and random-effects terms. The formula and data together determine a
numerical representation of the model from which the profiled deviance or the
profiled REML criterion can be evaluated as a function of some of the model
parameters. The appropriate criterion is optimized, using one of the
constrained optimization functions in R, to provide the parameter estimates. We
describe the structure of the model, the steps in evaluating the profiled
deviance or REML criterion, and the structure of classes or types that
represents such a model. Sufficient detail is included to allow specialization
of these structures by users who wish to write functions to fit specialized
linear mixed models, such as models incorporating pedigrees or smoothing
splines, that are not easily expressible in the formula language used by lmer.
As some scholars believe that voicing is only an accompanying, non-phonemic feature and that the essential characteristic in Hebrew is the force of articulation, we were encouraged to check the phonetic voicing in Hebrew. Since final sounds cannot be measured with an ordinary VOT method, we used also the "Voice into Closure" (ViC) method.
Measurements of fourteen Hebrew subjects revealed that in every voiced stop the phonetic voicing extends longer than in its voiceless counterpart Comparing our VOT findings to those in twelve other languages, revealed that in a "voiced" sound there is always longer voicing than in its voiceless counterpart. Some characteristics that differentiate between languages are reported (e.g., Hebrew speakers resemble Spanish and Polish speakers with a large span of VOT, in comparison to the nine other languages checked).
Perception tests of synthesized words (on English, Spanish, Thai, and Hebrew listeners) demonstrated that the voice timing cue by itself suffices to differentiate between the voiced-voiceless categories. While the hypothesis of "force" could not be supported, "voice timing" was found to be an actual physical feature, and it is reasonable to assume that this feature is the main cause of a categorical differentiation in all the languages.
This study investigates whether the age at which English becomes dominant for Western Armenian bilinguals in the United States affects their vowel production in Western Armenian. Participating in the study were ten Western-Armenian bilinguals who learned English before age 8, ten bilinguals who did not learn English until adulthood, and one Western Armenian monolingual. Vowel production was measured using recordings from oral reading of a list of sentences. Results showed that English affects the Western Armenian vowel system but only for those vowels that are already close to English. This bifurcation of vowel behavior indicates that a single across-the-board principle that governs the influence of a dominant language on a minority language is too general. Other forces such as universal tendencies, normal diachronic change, and sociolinguistic pressures must be considered. In addition, even though the influence of English was stronger for those exposed to English as children than for those exposed as adults, the latter group showed significant changes in the direction of English. This means that the effects of the dominant language extend over a lifetime. (Contains 9 tables and 1 figure.)
An increasing trend in many postsecondary foreign language classes in North America is the presence of heritage language learners. Heritage language learners are speakers of ethnolinguistically minority languages who were exposed to the language in the family since childhood and as adults wish to learn, relearn, or improve their current level of linguistic proficiency in their family language. This article discusses the development of the linguistic and grammatical knowledge of heritage language speakers from childhood to adulthood and the conditions under which language learning does or does not occur. Placing heritage language acquisition within current and viable cognitive and linguistic theories of acquisition, I discuss what most recent basic research has so far uncovered about heritage speakers of different languages and their language learning process. I conclude with directions for future research.
This study tested the hypothesis that heritage speakers of a minority language, due to their childhood experience with two languages, would outperform late learners in producing contrast: language-internal phonological contrast, as well as cross-linguistic phonetic contrast between similar, yet acoustically distinct, categories of different languages. To this end, production of Mandarin and English by heritage speakers of Mandarin was compared to that of native Mandarin speakers and native American English-speaking late learners of Mandarin in three experiments. In experiment 1, back vowels in Mandarin and English were produced distinctly by all groups, but the greatest separation between similar vowels was achieved by heritage speakers. In experiment 2, Mandarin aspirated and English voiceless plosives were produced distinctly by native Mandarin speakers and heritage speakers, who both put more distance between them than late learners. In experiment 3, the Mandarin retroflex and English palato-alveolar fricatives were distinguished by more heritage speakers and late learners than native Mandarin speakers. Thus, overall the hypothesis was supported: across experiments, heritage speakers were found to be the most successful at simultaneously maintaining language-internal and cross-linguistic contrasts, a result that may stem from a close approximation of phonetic norms that occurs during early exposure to both languages.
Linguistics Linguistic theory and experimental studies of language development rest heavily on the notion of the adult, perhaps linguistically stable, native speaker. Native speaker competence and performance are typically the result of normal first language acquisition in a predominantly monolingual environment, with optimal and continuous exposure to the language. The question we pose in this article is what happens when access to input and opportunities to use that native language are less than optimal during language development. We present and discuss the case of heritage speakers, i.e., bilingual speakers of an ethnic or immigrant minority language whose first language does not typically reach native-like attainment in adulthood. By examining the linguistic knowledge of these individuals, we question long-held ideas about the stability of language before the so-called critical period for language development, and the nature of the linguistic system as it develops under reduced input conditions. We present an overview of heritage speakers’ linguistic system and discuss several competing factors that shape this system in adulthood. We also call attention to the tremendous potential this population offers for linguistic research, the language teaching profession, and for society in general.
Heritage speakers are people raised in a home where one language is spoken who subsequently switch to another dominant language. The version of the home language that they have not completely acquired – heritage language – has only recently been given the attention it deserves from linguists and language instructors. Despite the appearance of great variation among heritage speakers, they fall along a continuum based upon the speakers' distance from the baseline language. Such a continuum-based model enables researchers and instructors to classify heritage speakers more accurately and readily. This article discusses the results of research on lower-proficiency speakers, identifying recurrent features of heritage languages in phonology, morphology, and syntax. Preliminary results indicate that different heritage languages share a number of structural similarities; this finding is important for the understanding of general processes involved in language acquisition. The article also presents implications of the main findings for language education and identifies areas needing further study. Linguistics Accepted Manuscript
“Lingua franca” and “language of wider communication” refer to the use of a language in international or multilingual contexts. Once limited generally to contact languages (pidgins and creoles) developed by sea traders and the workers of diverse linguistic backgrounds in coastal trading centers around the world, lingua franca eventually came to refer to the language chosen as the means of communication among people without a shared home language. In the contemporary world, English most frequently serves as an international lingua franca anywhere in the world or as a language of wider communication in multilingual regions. Consequently, demand has increased for instruction in English for international purposes but also in local varieties of English that have evolved since the first contact with English speakers via colonization, invasion, proselytization, or travel and education. Applied linguists have responded with pedagogical innovations. Yet, because the status of English globally is an unprecedented phenomenon, questions arise about its future as such. Languages that once held similar, but more geographically or functionally limited positions (e.g., Latin, Russian, French) eventually were displaced. In most cases, however, these languages, in one form or many, continue to thrive, albeit in more limited and local or regional ways than at the zenith of their dominance.
In heritage bilinguals’ sound structure, some aspects of the sound system are more prone to cross-language influence than others. In this study, we compare two different models of crosslanguage influence, a phonological markedness based model, which proposes that influence selectively affects a phonologically marked structure, and a phonetic category based model, where influence is mediated through cross-language equivalence classification of similar phones. The empirical data for the study comes from the production of the voicing contrast in English and Tagalog stops by heritage Tagalog speakers in Toronto. We compare the heritage speakers’ production with native control productions and also probe the effect of lexical stress in voicing realization as evidence for the underlying target structure of stop categories. The key empirical findings are that the heritage speakers produce their voiceless stops in both languages nearly native-like, including a native-like stress effect, but voiced stops exhibit considerable crosslanguage influence and assimilatory stress effects. We propose that the heritage speakers successfully establish separate phonetic categories for English and Tagalog voiceless stops, but form a partially merged category for English and Tagalog voiced stops. The findings provide partial support for the phonetic category based model of influence over the phonological markedness based model.
This paper overviews what we currently know about the phonetics/phonology of heritage speakers of Spanish based on previous research on this topic, and also provides suggestions for future directions to pursue, as inspired by previous work on heritage Spanish, adult learners of Spanish, native Spanish, and other heritage languages. Specifically, we examine the past and future of heritage Spanish phonetics/phonology at both the segmental (i.e., consonants and vowels) and suprasegmental (i.e., intonation, rhythm, stress) levels in terms of how this part of heritage Spanish grammars differs from that of other Spanish-speaking populations. Finally, we discuss a series of methodological factors to consider as investigators continue to advance this area of linguistic inquiry.
This study examines cross-generational differences in the realization of an English phonological contrast by bilingual Polish Americans in New York City. I analyze the production of voice onset time (VOT) in underlying stops, as in tin and den, and stops derived from interdental fricatives, as in [t]in for thin and [d]en for then, in an English-only reading task. Generation one exhibits VOT interference for both stop types, with a bias toward interference for voiced stops. Generation two transfers Polish-like VOTs to derived stops. I argue that the cross-generational progression from the global effects of interference to the focused presence of transfer is filtered through L1 markedness and reflects speakers' growing sensitivity to L2 phonology and social considerations. The observed asymmetries in the distribution of interference/transfer are unaccountable by existing models of L2 acquisition and motivate a view of L1/L2 phonetic categories as governed by a variable grammar with access to phonological and social information.
Israel Studies 5.1 (2000) 65-91
Americanization is the act, or the process, of conforming to America's culture, ideologies, and material goods. It can largely be seen as an aspect of economic-technological development involving changes in life-style and consumer behaviors. For many countries in the world, the United States serves as a reference point, often as a source of aspiration, in different areas of life from economic to cultural, from dance to cinema, as well as in attitudes toward minorities, including those who differ in ethnicity, religion, race, or sexual orientation. The United States has become a role model for other cultures, distinct one from the other, because it represents the abundant society, the freedom to consume, and, more generally, what many people see as the "good life." America shapes the world of tomorrow. While in some places these influences are direct ones resulting from the actual presence of Americans (e.g., Japan or Europe after World War II), in most cases it is a domestic, local desire, led by interest groups and public sectors, to imitate and adjust to American models.
In the Israeli context, for many years the influence of the United States was felt in the unique strategic ties and the political and economic support that resulted in the more than half serious notion that Israel was America's 51st state. Recently, as Israel attempted to "wean itself of American economic aid hoping to stand free of the unilateral transfers," American influences have become even more tangible in the every-day lives of ordinary people. Not only does this process reflect the aspiration for the abundance and freedom embodied in the American ethos; many suggest that it has connected Israel to the dominant western culture, and has encouraged the country's participation in the more general processes of modernization and globalization.
Americanization in Israel is multifaceted -- in this article we attempt to evaluate three different, yet complementary, aspects of the Americanization process. In the demographic sphere, we examine the numbers and social characteristics of American immigrants to Israel, emigrants from Israel to the United States, and tourists to Israel. All these factors have, or reflect, American influences on Israeli society. In the cultural sphere, we discuss the increasing influence of America and American cultural patterns in a variety of spheres of Israeli culture, from language and names to work patterns, physical structures, and more. Finally, we direct attention to the political behavior of American immigrants in Israel and their influence on the Israeli political system.
Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, slightly more than two and a half million Jews have immigrated to the country ("made" aliyah). This large number of immigrants was imperative for the evolution of the Israeli Jewish population. Taking emigration into account, the migration balance constitutes half of the total population growth over the fifty years of statehood. According to the most recent data of the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, the United States is ranked sixth as a source of immigrants [olim], according to last country of residence, of approximately 70 countries of origin. The total number of American olim who arrived in Israel between 14 May 1948 and the end of 1998 is 96,150, or an average rate of 36 per one thousand olim. This volume is lower than that from the Soviet Union, Romania, Morocco, Poland or Iraq, but higher than that from France, the United Kingdom or any other single European country, as well as from any single Latin American country.
American aliyah did not begin with the establishment of the State of Israel, but Jewish sovereignty significantly affected its volume. Between 1948 and 1959, a total of 4,495 Americans immigrated, which averages out to 375 per year (Table 1), an increase of almost 50 percent over the yearly average during the British Mandatory period. From 1960 through 1966, there was a total of 4,892 American olim, or an average of 699 per year. These increases are significant in their own right, but also because of the importance frequently attributed to the Six-Day War by itself...
Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic are known for what has become characterised as their discontiguous or non-concatenative morphology. In the overwhelming majority of the literature, in both and generative grammar, semantically related words in such languages are described as sharing a common ROOT, usually consisting of three consonants. Such consonantal roots are viewed as actual morphemes with lexical status. Words are formed by affixation to roots; the most common type of such affixation is the interleaving of vowels between the consonants of a root. Within current phonology, the morphological status of roots was originally expressed through a multi-tiered representation, where a root occupied a distinguished tier (e.g. McCarthy 1979, 1981). More recently the notion of root has been challenged by Bat-El (1994a), who argues, based on properties of the process of denominal verb formation (DVF) in Modern Hebrew (MH), that the concept of root can be eliminated.
The present study investigates the acoustics (F1 × F2) of Catalan and Spanish mid-back vowels as produced by highly proficient, early Spanish-Catalan bilinguals residing on the island of Majorca, a bilingual speech community. Majorcan Catalan has two phonemic mid-back vowels in stressed positions (/o/ and /c/) while Spanish possesses only one (/o/). Two groups of bilinguals were recruited and asked to produce materials in both languages - one group of Spanish dominant and one of Catalan-dominant speakers. It was first found that Catalan and Spanish /o/ are virtually indistinguishable. Catalan /c/ is lower and more fronted than the other two vowels. Spanish-dominant bilinguals were found to differ from Catalan-dominant ones in that they did not produce the Catalan-specific /o/-/c/ contrast in their speech; that is, they produced a single, merged Catalan mid-back vowel. A within-subjects analysis of first- and second-language mid-back vowels further suggested, for Spanish-dominant bilinguals, that they had developed a separate vowel category to accommodate their single, merged Catalan mid-back vowel; that is, they possessed a two-category mid-back vowel system, i.e. one for their Spanish /o/ and one for their merged Catalan /o/ + /c/. Potential explanations and theoretical implications are discussed.
Two views of bilingualism are presented--the monolingual or fractional view which holds that the bilingual is (or should be) two monolinguals in one person, and the bilingual or wholistic view which states that the coexistence of two languages in the bilingual has produced a unique and specific speaker-hearer. These views affect how we compare monolinguals and bilinguals, study language learning and language forgetting, and examine the speech modes--monolingual and bilingual--that characterize the bilingual's everyday interactions. The implications of the wholistic view on the neurolinguistics of bilingualism, and in particular bilingual aphasia, are discussed.
This study assessed the relation between non-native subjects' age of learning (AOL) English and the overall degree of perceived foreign accent in their production of English sentences. The 240 native Italian (NI) subjects examined had begun learning English in Canada between the ages of 2 and 23 yr, and had lived in Canada for an average of 32 yr. Native English-speaking listeners used a continuous scale to rate sentences spoken by the NI subjects and by subjects in a native English comparison group. Estimates of the AOL of onset of foreign accents varied across the ten listeners who rated the sentences, ranging from 3.1 to 11.6 yr (M = 7.4). Foreign accents were evident in sentences spoken by many NI subjects who had begun learning English long before what is traditionally considered to be the end of a critical period. Very few NI subjects who began learning English after the age of 15 yr received ratings that fell within the native English range. Principal components analyses of the NI subjects' responses to a language background questionnaire were followed by multiple-regression analyses. AOL accounted for an average of 59% of variance in the foreign accent ratings. Language use factors accounted for an additional 15% of variance. Gender was also found to influence degree of foreign accent.
Phonologically-based word formation: Modern Hebrew blends
- O Bat-El
Speech perception and linguistic experience: Theoretical and methodological issues in cross-language speech research
- J E Flege
Little America, just over the Green Line
- T Morad
Anglos in Israel. Jewish Action
- Z Volk
Second language acquisition and the critical period hypothesis
- J E Flege
The production of Arabic vowels by English L2 learners and heritage speakers of Arabic [Doctoral dissertation
- E Saadah