Abstract:
In the last few decades there has been a considerable increase in the amount of studies investigating the phonetic abilities of heritage speakers. Even though the general assumption has been that these early bilinguals have a benefit in the pronunciation of their heritage language as a result of early exposure to the minority language, a recent body of work has been able to provide a more nuanced understanding of the phonetic interactions that take place in heritage speech perception, production, and processing (Amengual 2016, 2018, 2019; Au et al., 2008; Knightly et al., 2003; Rao, 2014, 2015; Boomershine, 2012; Kim & Repiso-Puigdelliura, 2019; Ronquest, 2012; Henriksen, 2015). The current project examines the flexibility of the sound systems of heritage speakers and the inherent heterogeneity in the acoustic realization of these early bilinguals, with a specific focus on phonetic interactions in bilingual and trilingual speech. In this talk I will show acoustic data on Heritage Spanish speakers (English-Spanish bilinguals) in California that sheds light on interlingual phonological influence in L2 and L3 speech. The talk will conclude with several methodological and theoretical considerations for the study of heritage phonology.
La xerrada es durà a terme el 4 de setembre de 2024 a les 11h. a l’aula AA07 del Ramon Llull (UIB).