Heritage language exposure impacts voice onset time of Dutch-German simultaneous bilingual preschoolers
Publication year
2018Number of pages
20 p.
Source
Bilingualism. Language and Cognition, 21, 3, (2018), pp. 598-617ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor
Display more detailsDisplay less details
Organization
SW OZ BSI OLO
Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur
Journal title
Bilingualism. Language and Cognition
Volume
vol. 21
Issue
iss. 3
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 598
Page end
p. 617
Subject
First Language Acquisition; Language & Communication; Learning and PlasticityAbstract
This study assesses the effects of age and language exposure on VOT production in 29 simultaneous bilingual children aged 3;7 to 5;11 who speak German as a heritage language in the Netherlands. Dutch and German have a binary voicing contrast, but the contrast is implemented with different VOT values in the two languages. The results suggest that bilingual children produce 'voiced' plosives similarly in their two languages, and these productions are not monolingual-like in either language. Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence between Dutch and German can explain these results. Yet, the bilinguals seemingly have two autonomous categories for Dutch and German 'voiceless' plosives. In German, the bilinguals' aspiration is not monolingual-like, but bilinguals with more heritage language exposure produce more target-like aspiration. Importantly, the amount of exposure to German has no effect on the majority language's 'voiceless' category. This implies that more heritage language exposure is associated with more language-specific voicing systems.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- Academic publications [238430]
- Electronic publications [122512]
- Faculty of Arts [29387]
- Faculty of Social Sciences [29483]
- Open Access publications [97507]
Upload full text
Use your RU credentials (u/z-number and password) to log in with SURFconext to upload a file for processing by the repository team.