Rhotics in Spanish as a foreign language: An intervention study with German–Turkish bilinguals
While German has one rhotic phoneme, the uvular fricative /ʁ/, which is vocalized to [ɐ] in syllable-final position, Spanish possesses two alveolar rhotics, the tap /ɾ/ and the trill /r/, which never undergo vocalization. Turkish patterns with German in having one rhotic but is closer to Spanish...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Croatian Philological Association
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Strani Jezici |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/446261 |
| Summary: | While German has one rhotic phoneme, the uvular fricative /ʁ/, which is vocalized to [ɐ]
in syllable-final position, Spanish possesses two alveolar rhotics, the tap /ɾ/ and the trill /r/,
which never undergo vocalization. Turkish patterns with German in having one rhotic but
is closer to Spanish in sharing the alveolar place of articulation and in lacking r-vocalization.
This article reports on an intervention study carried out with 12 German–Turkish heritage
bilinguals learning Spanish in Germany. Reading data were collected before, during, and after
the completion of a digital learning module. The phonetic cues considered were (1) consonantal
production of the target segment; (2) target-like place of articulation, and (3) target-like
distribution of the tap–trill contrast. Results show that high correctness rates regarding the
production of alveolar rhotics are achieved from the outset and that the target-likeness of the
tap–trill distribution and the avoidance of r-vocalization generally improves across the three
measurement points. The case of a single learner who had primarily transferred the German
uvular rhotic and showed a considerably increased correctness rate after the intervention
indicates that the learners’ awareness of similarities and differences between their heritage
language and Spanish has a positive effect on rhotic acquisition. |
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| ISSN: | 0351-0840 2459-671X |