Second dialect acquisition: A sociophonetic perspective (original) (raw)

Changing words or changing rules? Second dialect acquisition and phonological representation

How do speakers who move to a new dialect region acquire phonological features of the new dialect? While social factors surely play an important role, second dialect acquisition must be constrained by aspects of the linguistic system: the form of phonological representations, their malleability, and the processes that manipulate them to yield surface forms. Second dialect data thus has the potential to shed light on foundational questions in phonological theory. This paper reviews two prominent models of phonological representation -- Generative Phonology and Usage-based Phonology -- and sets out the predictions each makes regarding how particular kinds of second dialect features may be acquired. These predictions are then evaluated against the results of a sociolinguistic study of mobile adults who acquired their native dialect of English in Canada and later moved to the New York City region, focusing on evidence of change with respect to two features: the cot/caught distinction and height of /ɑU/ in Canadian Raising environments. It is argued that the results of this study can best be accounted for within a usage-based model in which phonological representations are both phonetically rich and linked to social labels.

The effect of geographic mobility on the retention of a local dialect

PhD dissertation, 2000

Several studies have demonstrated that there is a "critical period" for language acquisition ending at some point approaching puberty, beyond which language acquisition can occur only imperfectly. Other studies, primarily focusing on adolescents, have also found that this concept applies to second dialect acquisition in situations of dialect contact. Even so, little is known about the mechanisms underlying the linguistic changes that can occur in dialect contact situations. This is an important question particularly because it is such a common situation - adults are, for example, faced with constant exposure to a second dialect if they move away from where they acquired their native dialect. This study investigates this issue by comparing the linguistic perception and production of two groups of individuals, one made up of individuals who have lived in the same town their entire lives and the other made up of individuals who grew up in that town but moved away as adults. The results of sociolinguistic interviews and commutation tests are used to determine the extent to which the adult emigrants from the community gained or lost features of their native dialect, or accommodated to their new dialect. The investigation finds that adult migrants do make changes in their linguistic production and perception upon constant exposure to a second dialect, though not all features prove susceptible to change. The changes the individuals make involve both accommodations to the new dialects they are surrounded by as well as changes that do not involve such accommodation. The major generalization drawn from the data is that the linguistic features that are most susceptible to change in dialect contact situations are those features that are undergoing change in the individuals' native dialect. This result has direct applications in the field of dialectology and the speech recognition industry, as both of these fields can benefit from a deeper knowledge of the sorts of "hybridized" dialect systems than can result from dialect contact.

Dialect Variation and Dialect Change. A social-dialectological view

This paper addresses the theme of the workshop by providing a social-dialectological slant on variation in language. First a brief overview of the central theoretical and methodological tenets of this approach to variation and change in language is presented. Drawing on data collected in an ongoing dialectological survey of Marathi at the Deccan College, the paper provides a description of synchronic variation in linguistic features including case marking and agreement in the transitive-perfective clause in regional varieties of Marathi. It is suggested that the variation is the result of both language-internal and language-external factors. The contemporary dialectal data are compared with data from historical sources (Grierson 1905). An expansion in the pool of linguistic feature variants and a broad tendency towards dialect levelling through standardisation are noted for the regional varieties. However, the rates of standardisation across linguistic features and across social groups and regions are shown to vary. The paper concludes by suggesting meeting ground for functionalist approaches to language variation such as social dialectology and more formal approaches.

The Acquisition of Dialect-Specific Phonology, Phonetics, and Sociolinguistics in L2 Spanish

Critical Multilingualism Studies, 2020

How regional variation shapes second language (L2) perception and manifests in the production of second language learners has received more and more attention from linguists recently. Within the emerging field of L2 sociophonetics, both perception and production studies are essential for understanding L2 phonological dialect acquisition, but neither alone can provide a full picture of a learner’s development. This paper surveys the learner trends observed in recent research on regional sound acquisition in L2 Spanish in both areas, tying findings to theoretical models in L2 speech perception and sociolinguistic acquisition, and considering what elements of acquisition the models fail to address. This review confirms the interdisciplinary nature of L2 regional sound learning, as social factors like identity and social networks predict dialect variant acquisition alongside L2 proficiency, exposure, and other linguistic and situational factors. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the developing field of L2 sociophonetics and dialectology, future research is needed that maps a variety of social, linguistic, and individual factors and their role in L2 regional acquisition.

The role of orthography in (apparent) L2 dialect acquisition

English World-Wide, 2014

This paper investigates the role of orthographic representation in the production of the local variant of the STRUT vowel in the speech of Polish migrants living in Manchester. A previous study (Drummond 2013) showed that acquisition of the local variant depended on various social factors, yet this only took into account conversation data, leaving some word list data unexplored. Comparing the two data sets reveals a difference in degree of acquisition, with the word list data producing more of the local vowel. This is explained not as a case of dialect acquisition as such, but more as an effect of orthography triggering a connection to the L1 phonology, the particular nature of which mimics acquisition of the local variant.