Dynamic differences in child bilinguals’ production of diphthongs

Authors

  • Vincent Chanethom Department of Linguistics, New York University, USA Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2011/04/0013/000182

Keywords:

Bilingualism, diphthongs, SSANOVA, language acquisition

Abstract

This paper examines the cross-linguistic phonetic interactions in the production of diphthongs by French-English bilingual children. The study aims to investigate (1) whether English diphthongs (e.g. /aɪ/ as in bye) and French tautosyllabic vowel-glide combinations (e.g. /aj/ as in baille ‘yawn’) have different phonetic implementations, and if so, (2) whether bilingual children maintain two separate categories. Using SSANOVA to compare formant contours, the results showed distinct phonetic patterns for each category. The results also indicated that bilingual children with a reduced amount of input in French show overlapping acoustic properties.

References

Boersma, P., Weenink, D. 2011. Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 5.2.22, retrieved 14 April 2011 from http://www.praat.org/

Davidson, L. 2006. Comparing tongue shapes from ultrasound imaging using smoothing spline analysis of variance. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 120, 407-415.

Flege, J. 2002. Interactions between the native and second language phonetic systems. In Burmeister, P., Piske, T. and Rohde, A. (eds.) 2002. An Integrated View of Language Development: Papers in Honor of Henning Wode, 217-244. Wissenschafftlicher Verlag Trier: Trier.

Harrington, J., Cassidy, S. 1994. Dynamic and target theories of vowel classification: evidence from monophthongs and diphthongs in Australian English. Language and Speech 37, 357-373.

Tsukada, K. 2008. An acoustic comparison of English monophthongs and diphthongs produced by Australian and Thai speakers. English World-Wide 29, 194-211.

Tsukada, K., Birdsong, D., Bialystok, E., Mack, M., Sung, H., Flege, J. 2005. A developmental study of English vowel production and perception by native Korean adults and children. Journal of Phonetics 33, 263-290.

Downloads

Published

01-01-2011

How to Cite

Dynamic differences in child bilinguals’ production of diphthongs. (2011). Linguistic Proceedings Series, 4(1), 55-58. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2011/04/0013/000182

Similar Articles

101-110 of 301

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.