Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English Bilinguals
The purpose of this study is to examine phonetic interactions in early Spanish/English bilinguals to see if they have established a representation for the Spanish palatal nasal /ɲ/ (e.g., /kaɲon/ <i>cañón</i> ‘canyon’) that is separate from the similar, yet acoustically distinct English...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Languages |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/50 |
| _version_ | 1797549010982010880 |
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| author | Sara Stefanich Jennifer Cabrelli |
| author_facet | Sara Stefanich Jennifer Cabrelli |
| author_sort | Sara Stefanich |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The purpose of this study is to examine phonetic interactions in early Spanish/English bilinguals to see if they have established a representation for the Spanish palatal nasal /ɲ/ (e.g., /kaɲon/ <i>cañón</i> ‘canyon’) that is separate from the similar, yet acoustically distinct English /n+j/ sequence (e.g., /kænjn̩/ ‘canyon’). Twenty heritage speakers of Spanish completed a delayed repetition task in each language, in which a set of disyllabic nonce words were produced in a carrier phrase. English critical stimuli contained an intervocalic /n+j/ sequence (e.g., /dɛnjɑ/ ‘denya’) and Spanish critical stimuli contained intervocalic /ɲ/ (e.g., /deɲja/ ‘deña’). We measured the duration and formant contours of the following vocalic portion as acoustic indices of the /ɲ/~/n+j/ distinction. The duration data and formant contour data alike show that early bilinguals distinguish between the Spanish /ɲ/ and English /n+j/ in production, indicative of the maintenance of separate representations for these similar sounds and thus a lack of interaction between systems for bilinguals in this scenario. We discuss these discrete representations in comparison to previous evidence of shared and separate representations in this population, examining a set of variables that are potentially responsible for the attested distinction. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:08:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-18dc1894f0344c1e9b6839dc06300b17 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2226-471X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:08:42Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Languages |
| spelling | doaj.art-18dc1894f0344c1e9b6839dc06300b172023-11-20T19:32:00ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2020-11-01545010.3390/languages5040050Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English BilingualsSara Stefanich0Jennifer Cabrelli1Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USADepartment of Hispanic and Italian Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USAThe purpose of this study is to examine phonetic interactions in early Spanish/English bilinguals to see if they have established a representation for the Spanish palatal nasal /ɲ/ (e.g., /kaɲon/ <i>cañón</i> ‘canyon’) that is separate from the similar, yet acoustically distinct English /n+j/ sequence (e.g., /kænjn̩/ ‘canyon’). Twenty heritage speakers of Spanish completed a delayed repetition task in each language, in which a set of disyllabic nonce words were produced in a carrier phrase. English critical stimuli contained an intervocalic /n+j/ sequence (e.g., /dɛnjɑ/ ‘denya’) and Spanish critical stimuli contained intervocalic /ɲ/ (e.g., /deɲja/ ‘deña’). We measured the duration and formant contours of the following vocalic portion as acoustic indices of the /ɲ/~/n+j/ distinction. The duration data and formant contour data alike show that early bilinguals distinguish between the Spanish /ɲ/ and English /n+j/ in production, indicative of the maintenance of separate representations for these similar sounds and thus a lack of interaction between systems for bilinguals in this scenario. We discuss these discrete representations in comparison to previous evidence of shared and separate representations in this population, examining a set of variables that are potentially responsible for the attested distinction.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/50heritage bilingualismearly bilingualismSpanishEnglishphonologyphonetics |
| spellingShingle | Sara Stefanich Jennifer Cabrelli Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English Bilinguals Languages heritage bilingualism early bilingualism Spanish English phonology phonetics |
| title | Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English Bilinguals |
| title_full | Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English Bilinguals |
| title_fullStr | Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English Bilinguals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English Bilinguals |
| title_short | Shared or Separate Representations? The Spanish Palatal Nasal in Early Spanish/English Bilinguals |
| title_sort | shared or separate representations the spanish palatal nasal in early spanish english bilinguals |
| topic | heritage bilingualism early bilingualism Spanish English phonology phonetics |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/5/4/50 |
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