Speech Productions of French-English Bilingual Speakers in

Western Canada

Nicole NetelenbosFangfang Li

• The two language systems of a bilingual speaker may interact, the extent of which depends on:

Age of second language acquisition (Flege et al., 2003) Language environment (Caramazza & Yeni-Komshian,

1974) Among others

Objectives

Provide a comprehensive picture of bilingualism in the Canadian prairies

Vowels and consonants

English-dominant environment

Late bilinguals

Questions

Are late French-English bilinguals maintaining two separate language systems in an English dominant environment?

Are the bilinguals’ English speech productions similar to those of monolingual English speakers?

1

2

Participants• 12 French-English bilinguals (6 female, 6 male)

• Born in Quebec, Canada

• Learned English at 13 years or later

• All participants residing in Alberta, Canada at the time of data collection

• Control group- 20 Monolingual English speakers

Part 1:Investigating vowel formants (F1 & F2)

Procedure

• Task: read a list of words in English and French beginning with consonants /p, b, t, d, k, g/ containing the tense vowels [u], [e], [i], [o] and lax vowels [ʊ], [ɛ], [ɪ], [ᴐ]

• Sample words in French and English (192- English, 192- French)

Acoustic analysis

• Vowels

F1

F2

Acoustic analysis cont.

• Formants extracted using PRAAT software

• 1st and 2nd formants measured at the midpoint

• Genders separated

• Repeated-Measures ANOVA

Tense vs. lax French vowels : phonological status

Word Phoneme Allophone

Poule /pul/ [pʊl]

[i, u] [I, U] Allophonic variation

• Conditioning environment: (e.g.) Closed syllable laxing: High tense vowels are realized as lax in word-final closed syllables

Vowel charts Canadian English and Canadian French

GENDRON, J-D. (1966). Tendances phonétiques du français parlé au Canada. Québec, Les Presses de l'Université Laval.

English French

Previous research

MacLeod, A. N. A, et al. (2009). Production of high vowels in Canadian English and Canadian French: A comparison of early bilingual and monolingual speakers.

Journal of Phonetics, 37, 374-387

Formant results females: tense vowels

Formant results as a whole

Lax Tense

I ʊ ɛ ᴐ i u e o

F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2

bf-be * * * * * *me-be * * * *

Lax Tense

I ʊ ɛ ᴐ i u e o

F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2 F1 F2

bf-be * * * * * * *me-be * * * *

Males

Females

Interim conclusion: vowels• In general, late French-English bilinguals in Alberta maintained more separate language systems for the lax vowels than for the tense vowels.

• When comparing the bilinguals’ English speech productions to the monolingual English speakers, particularly for the tense vowels, bilinguals are attaining monolingual-like speech patterns in F1 and F2 .

Part 2:Investigating stops (VOT)

Procedure

• Task: read a list of words in English and French beginning with consonants /p, b, t, d, k, g/ containing the vowels [y], [æ], [ɑ], [ʊ], [ɛ], [ᴐ] [ɪ], [u], [e], [i] [o]

• Sample words in French and English (264- English, 264- French)

Acoustic analysis

• Stops (VOT)

VOT (French vs. English)Prevoicing

Short-lag

Short-lag

Long-lag

French EnglishPrevoicing

Short-lag

Short-lag

Long-lag

French EnglishPrevoicing

Short-lag

Short-lag

Long-lag

French EnglishPrevoicing

Short-lag

Short-lag

Long-lag

French EnglishPrevoicing

Short-lag

Short-lag

Long-lag

Cross language phonetic influences on the speech of

French–English bilinguals

Fowler, C. A., Sramko, V., Ostry, D. J., Rowland, S. A., & Hallé, P. (2008). Cross language phonetic influences on the speech of French–English bilinguals. Journal of Phonetics, 36(4), 649-663.

VOT Results

VOT Results

Interim conclusion: VOT

• French-English bilinguals maintain separate VOT categories between their English (L2) and French (L1), except for /t/.

• Their L2 is intermediate between monolingual English and their L1.

• Voiced and voiceless categories are behaving differently.

General conclusion1 ) Are late French-English bilinguals maintaining two separate language systems in an English dominant environment? It depends. Vowels: no for tense vowels, yes for lax vowels Stops: in general, yes

2) Are the bilinguals’ English speech productions similar to those of monolingual English speakers? It depends. Vowels: yes for tense vowels, no for lax vowels Stops: No