Mennen Ineke, Kelly Niamh, Mayr Robert, Morris Jonathan
Department of English, University of Graz, Graz, Austria.
Department of English, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jan 22;10:3038. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03038. eCollection 2019.
This study investigates effects of long-term language contact and individual linguistic experience on the realization of lexical stress correlates in Welsh and Welsh English. To this end, a production study was carried out in which participants were asked to read out Welsh and English disyllabic words with stress on the penultimate syllable, placed within carrier phrases. Recordings were made of the productions of Welsh and English target words, by two groups of Welsh-English bilinguals differing in home language, as well as the productions of English target words by Welsh English monolinguals and speakers of Southern Standard British English (SSBE). Acoustic measures were taken of fundamental frequency (f0) and intensity ratios of stressed and unstressed vowels, duration of stressed and unstressed vowels, and duration of the post-stress consonant. The results of acoustic comparisons of Welsh English with SSBE and Welsh revealed that SSBE differs from the other groups in all measures of lexical stress. Welsh and Welsh English, however, show considerable phonetic overlap, albeit with language-specific differences in two of the five measures (unstressed vowel duration, intensity ratio). These findings suggest cross-language convergence in the realization of lexical stress in Welsh and Welsh English disyllabic words with penultimate stress. Individual linguistic experience, in turn, did not play a major role in the realization of lexical stress in these words. Bilinguals did not differ from monolinguals when speaking English, and home language also had no effect on any measure. This suggests that other factors must be responsible for the observed patterns. We discuss the possibility that the varieties of Welsh and Welsh English spoken in this community function as a sign of regional or peer group identity, rather than as markers of linguistic experience.
本研究调查长期语言接触和个体语言经验对威尔士语和威尔士英语中词汇重音相关特征实现的影响。为此，开展了一项产出研究，要求参与者读出倒数第二个音节重读的威尔士语和英语双音节词，并置于载体短语中。由两组母语不同的威尔士 - 英语双语者录制威尔士语和英语目标词的产出，以及威尔士英语单语者和标准英国南部英语（SSBE）使用者对英语目标词的产出。对基频（f0）、重读音节和非重读音节元音的强度比、重读音节和非重读音节元音的时长以及重音后辅音的时长进行声学测量。威尔士英语与SSBE和威尔士语的声学比较结果表明，在词汇重音的所有测量方面，SSBE与其他组不同。然而，威尔士语和威尔士英语显示出相当大的语音重叠，尽管在五项测量中的两项（非重读音节元音时长、强度比）存在特定语言的差异。这些发现表明，在倒数第二个音节重读的威尔士语和威尔士英语双音节词的词汇重音实现方面存在跨语言趋同。反过来，个体语言经验在这些词的词汇重音实现中并未发挥主要作用。双语者说英语时与单语者没有差异，母语对任何测量也没有影响。这表明其他因素必定是造成观察到的模式的原因。我们讨论了这样一种可能性，即该社区中使用的威尔士语和威尔士英语变体是区域或同龄群体身份的标志，而不是语言经验的标记。
