A Tale of Two Fricatives

Consonantal Contrast in Heritage Speakers of Mandarin

The 32nd Penn Linguistics Colloquium23 February 2008

Charles B. Chang, Erin Haynes, Russell Rhodes, and Yao Yao

University of California, Berkeleycbchang@berkeley.edu, hayneser@berkeley.edu,

russell_rhodes@berkeley.edu, yaoyao@berkeley.edu

Outline

1. Background and research questions

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

5. Conclusions

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Background

This study compares fricative production in heritage speakers of Mandarin to that of native Mandarin speakers and that of native English speakers learning Mandarin as a foreign language.

Heritage speakers of Mandarin (narrow definition):

people who have had exposure to Mandarin in their family but have shifted to primarily using English

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Background

A few studies have examined the phonological competence of heritage speakers: Au et al. (2002) and Knightly et al. (2003):

heritage speakers of Spanish have a phonological advantage over late learners (VOT, degree of lenition, and accent ratings).

Oh et al. (2002, 2003): heritage speakers of Korean exhibit rather native-like production (VOT and accent ratings).

Godson (2003): heritage speakers of Armenian show influence in their Armenian vowels from English, but only for Armenian vowels close to English vowels.

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Research Questions

Only Godson (2003) has explored categorical neutralization, and only with respect to vowels.

Do heritage speakers maintain consonantal contrasts of the heritage language?

Do heritage speakers maintain contrasts between segments of the heritage language and similar segments of the dominant language?

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Research Questions

Realization of 3 fricatives compared:

Mandarin /ʂ/

English /ʃ/

Mandarin /ɕ/

Outline

1. Background and research questions

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

5. Conclusions

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Methods

Participants 12 speakers total

3 native speakers of Mandarin 6 heritage speakers of Mandarin 3 late learners of Mandarin

Questionnaire Speakers’ status determined based on a

language background questionnaire Recordings

All items recorded in a sound-proof booth (at 48 kHz, 16 bps)

Marantz PMD660, AKG C420 head-mounted condenser microphone

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Methods

Stimuli 91 words total

59 Mandarin words 32 English words

Presentation of stimuli words read off of index cards

English words written in English orthography Mandarin words written in Mandarin orthography

(traditional and simplified characters) and romanization (pinyin and BoPoMoFo)

all words written and read in isolation words read in 8 blocks

4 Mandarin blocks 4 English blocks block consisted of reading all of the words from a

given language words randomized before each block

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Methods

Acoustic measurements All measurements were performed in Praat

(Boersma & Weenink 2008). Peak amplitude frequency and centroid

frequency (Ladefoged 2005) were measured over a spectrum of the middle 100 ms of the fricative.

Average values of F1, F2, and F3 were measured over the first 20 ms of the vowel.

Analysis of data Statistical analysis was performed using the

Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test.

Outline

1. Background and research questions

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

5. Conclusions

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Results

Mean peak amplitude frequency, by speaker(L = female speakers, R = male speakers)

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Results

Mean centroid frequency, by speaker(L = female speakers, R = male speakers)

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Results

Distinctions made between fricatives, by speaker: (1-3 = native, 4-9 = heritage, 10-12 = learners)1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1

011

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/ʂ/-/ʃ/ - - / - + / + / - + - -/ɕ/-/ʃ/ / + / + + + + + + + + +/ʂ/-/ɕ/

+ + + + / + / + + + + +

Outline

1. Background and research questions

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

5. Conclusions

Discussion

The spectral data indicate:

Almost all speakers clearly distinguish alveolo-palatal /ɕ/ from retroflex /ʂ/ and the English palato-alveolar /ʃ/.

Realization of the contrast between /ʂ/ and /ʃ/ shows a great deal of variation among speakers.

Discussion

Two of the three native speakers and two of the three late learners collapse /ʂ/ and /ʃ/.

The most advanced heritage speaker and the least advanced heritage speaker pattern with native speakers and late learners, respectively.

/ʃ/ /ʂ/ /ɕ/

Discussion

The middle four heritage speakers keep /ʂ/ and /ʃ/ apart on one or both spectral measures. None of them merges the two sounds.

/ʃ/ /ʂ/ /ɕ/

Outline

1. Background and research questions

2. Methods

3. Results

4. Discussion

5. Conclusions

Conclusions

Our results suggest that native speakers and late learners most likely collapse /ʃ/ and /ʂ/, while heritage speakers tend to keep the two sounds apart.

Two possible explanations: Early exposure to both languages makes

heritage speakers better at hitting the two targets.

Early-acquired categories interact with each other and are dissimilated.

Conclusions

Our results also suggest that there is a correspondence in heritage speakers between linguistic performance and amount of exposure to the heritage language.

native speakers

most advanced heritage speakers

intermediate heritage speakers

late learners

least advanced heritage speakers

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Thank you!

Acknowledgements:

Sharon InkelasKeith Johnson

all speaker participantsparticipants in a seminar on phonological learning

(UCB, Fall 2007)UC Berkeley Linguistics

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Selected References

Au, Terry K., Leah M. Knightly, Sun-Ah Jun, and Janet S. Oh. 2002. Overhearing a language during childhood. Psychological Science 13(3): 238-243.

Boersma, Paul, and David Weenink. 2008. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. http://www.praat.org.

Godson, Linda. 2003. Phonetics of Language Attrition: Vowel Production and Articulatory Setting in the Speech of Western Armenian Heritage Speakers. PhD dissertation, University of California, San Diego.

Knightly, Leah M., Sun-Ah Jun, Janet S. Oh, and Terry K. Au. 2003. Production benefits of childhood overhearing. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 114(1): 465-474.

Ladefoged, Peter. 2005. Vowels and Consonants, 2nd edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Oh, Janet S., Terry K. Au, and Sun-Ah Jun. 2002. Benefits of childhood language experience for adult L2 learners’ phonology. In B. Skarabela et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the 26th Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vol. 2: 464-472. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Oh, Janet, Sun-Ah Jun, Leah Knightly, and Terry Au. 2003. Holding on to childhood language memory. Cognition 86(3): B53-B64.

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Mean F1 frequency

Results

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Mean F2 frequency

Results

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Mean F3 frequency

Results