On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese

Yao Yao; Charles B. Chang

doi:10.1353/lan.2016.0031

On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese

Yao Yao^*, Charles B. Chang

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This study investigates the source and status of a recent sound change in Shanghainese (Wu, Sinitic) that has been attributed to language contact with Mandarin. The change involves two vowels, /e/ and /ɛ/, reported to be merged three decades ago but produced distinctly in contemporary Shanghainese. Results of two production experiments show that speaker age, language mode (monolingual Shanghainese vs. bilingual Shanghainese-Mandarin), and crosslinguistic phonological similarity all influence the production of these vowels. These findings provide evidence for language contact as a linguistic means of merger reversal and are consistent with the view that contact phenomena originate from cross-language interaction within the bilingual mind. © 2016 Yao Yao & Charles B. Chang

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	433-467
Journal	Language
Volume	92
Issue number	2
Online published	28 Jun 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0031
Publication status	Published - Jun 2016
Externally published	Yes

Funding

This research was supported by funding from the Dean’s Reserve for Research, Scholarly, and Other Endeavors, Faculty of Humanities, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (project number: 1-ZV8U). The authors are grateful to Yan Jiang, Rong Li, Chang Liu, Chun-ling Catherine Liu, Jia Lou, Weiwen Xu, and Shengru Yao for research assistance and to Danny Erker, Brook Hefright, Gregory Iverson, the associate editor and two anonymous referees for Language, and audience members at the CUHK International Conference on Bilingualism and Comparative Linguistics, the 13th Conference on Laboratory Phonology, and the 20th annual conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics for helpful comments.

Research Keywords

Bilingual processing
Crosslinguistic influence
Language contact
Mandarin
Merger reversal
Phonological similarity
Shanghainese

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abstract = "This study investigates the source and status of a recent sound change in Shanghainese (Wu, Sinitic) that has been attributed to language contact with Mandarin. The change involves two vowels, /e/ and /ɛ/, reported to be merged three decades ago but produced distinctly in contemporary Shanghainese. Results of two production experiments show that speaker age, language mode (monolingual Shanghainese vs. bilingual Shanghainese-Mandarin), and crosslinguistic phonological similarity all influence the production of these vowels. These findings provide evidence for language contact as a linguistic means of merger reversal and are consistent with the view that contact phenomena originate from cross-language interaction within the bilingual mind. {\textcopyright} 2016 Yao Yao & Charles B. Chang",

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N2 - This study investigates the source and status of a recent sound change in Shanghainese (Wu, Sinitic) that has been attributed to language contact with Mandarin. The change involves two vowels, /e/ and /ɛ/, reported to be merged three decades ago but produced distinctly in contemporary Shanghainese. Results of two production experiments show that speaker age, language mode (monolingual Shanghainese vs. bilingual Shanghainese-Mandarin), and crosslinguistic phonological similarity all influence the production of these vowels. These findings provide evidence for language contact as a linguistic means of merger reversal and are consistent with the view that contact phenomena originate from cross-language interaction within the bilingual mind. © 2016 Yao Yao & Charles B. Chang

AB - This study investigates the source and status of a recent sound change in Shanghainese (Wu, Sinitic) that has been attributed to language contact with Mandarin. The change involves two vowels, /e/ and /ɛ/, reported to be merged three decades ago but produced distinctly in contemporary Shanghainese. Results of two production experiments show that speaker age, language mode (monolingual Shanghainese vs. bilingual Shanghainese-Mandarin), and crosslinguistic phonological similarity all influence the production of these vowels. These findings provide evidence for language contact as a linguistic means of merger reversal and are consistent with the view that contact phenomena originate from cross-language interaction within the bilingual mind. © 2016 Yao Yao & Charles B. Chang

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KW - Crosslinguistic influence

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JO - Language

JF - Language

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On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese

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