An acoustic analysis of variable vowel production in heritage and bilingual Spanish of North Carolina
Presentation
Overview
Overview
Description
The current study examines the vowel production of heritage Spanish speakers, or early bilinguals, and that of bilingual Spanish speakers, or late bilinguals. In order to better understand how listeners who speak more than one language produce vowels in both of those languages, a production study was conducted in which bilingual and heritage speakers of Spanish and English participated. Ten heritage speakers of Spanish and five bilingual speakers of Spanish were recorded in both English and Spanish in controlled tasks. They first completed a word-list production task, followed by a phrasal production task, and then read a children's book in both languages. Acoustical analyses, including first and second formant values and duration, are being conducted. Results of the analyses will be presented and compared to results of Chicago and Cuban heritage speaker studies (Ronquest, 2011; Alford, 2011, respectively). This investigation is an important first step in describing the heritage Spanish vowel system, and comparing it to the bilingual Spanish vowel system. The production results will be compared to perception study results of the same populations, helping us to better understand the relationship between production and perception of sounds in early and late bilinguals.
