Gestural Timing Patterns of Nasality in Highly Proficient Spanish Learners of English

Aerodynamic Evidence

Bibliographic Data

ID6440673
AuthorsAnder Beristain (0000-0001-9083-3871, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Saint Louis University, USA, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume68
Issue4
Pages766-793
Publication date2023-12-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage and Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-8309 • E-ISSN: 1756-6053
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00238309231215355
PMID38156472
OpenAlexW4390411657
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited69

Segment-to-segment timing overlap between Vowel-Nasal gestures in /VN/ sequences varies cross-linguistically. However, how bilinguals may adjust those timing gestures is still unanswered. Regarding timing strategies in a second language (L2), research finds that native (L1) strategies can be partially transferred to the L2, and that higher L2 proficiency promotes a more successful phonetic performance. My goal is to answer whether bilingual speakers can adjust their L1 coarticulatory settings in their L2 and to observe whether their L2 accentedness plays a role in ultimate attainment. Ten native speakers of Spanish (L1Sp) who were highly proficient L2 English speakers participated in Spanish and English read-aloud tasks. A control group of 16 L1 English speakers undertook the English experiment. Aerodynamic data were collected using pressure transducers. Each participant produced tokens with nasalized vowels in CVN# words and oral vowels in CV(CV) words. Four linguistically trained judges (two per target language) evaluated a set of pseudo-randomized sentences produced by the participants containing words with nasalized vowels and rated the speech on a 1 (heavily accented) to 9 (native-like) Likert-type scale. Measurements for onset and degree of overall nasality were obtained. Results indicate the L1Sp group can accommodate gestural timing strategies cross-linguistically as they exhibit an earlier nasality onset and increment nasality proportion in L2 English in a native-like manner. In addition, a positive correlation between greater vowel nasality degree and native-like accentedness in the L2 was found, suggesting L2 timing settings might be specified in higher spoken proficiency levels

American English · Audiology · First language · Gesture · Linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Nasal vowel · Nasality · Nasalization · Set (abstract data type · Speech recognition · Vowel · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology · Speech and dialogue systems