HeritageLanguageMaintenanceandPhonologicalMaintenanceinTorontoCantoneseMonophthongs?

HolmanTsehbt3@pitt.edu

January8,2017

-- ButTheyStillHavean“Accent”!

Slideswillbeavailableat:http://www.pitt.edu/˜hbt3/presentations.html

HERITAGE LANGUAGE VARIATION AND CHANGE IN TORONTOHTTP://PROJECTS.CHASS.UTORONTO.CA/NGN/HLVC

MyResearch

SoundChangeHowdothe

soundsystemsofalanguagechangeover

time?

HeritageLanguage(HL)Phonology

WhatcharacterizesHLphonology?Isitevendifferent?

Whatinter-generationaldifferencescanwefindinthevowelsystemofHLspeakers?

Variationist Approach: Isthereevidencefor“changeinprogress”(Labov 1994)inintergenerationaldifferencesinvowelproduction?

Anunder-researchedareaofHLspeech(Rao2016)

HERITAGE LANGUAGEVARIATION AND

CHANGE IN TORONTO

Datafrom

ThisPresentation• Firstglimpseofinter-generationalvariationacrossALLeightCantonesemonophthongs– Extendsearlieranalysesbasedonfewervowels(Tse2015;2016;InPress;Accepted)

• SpecificResearchQuestions– Isthereevidenceofvowelmergers?– Isthereevidenceofinter-generationallow-levelphoneticdifferences?• Twopossiblesources

– VowelShifts?– Changesinphoneticconditioning?

HeritageLanguages(HL)• InHLVCProjectcontext:– “mothertonguesotherthanCanada’stwoofficiallanguages(EnglishandFrench)”(Nagy2016:16)

• Inmyresearch:– Languagespokenindiasporiccontextinvolvingmigrationfrom“homeland”to“hostcountry”• Asocialcontextwith

– Psycholinguisticimplications(earlybilingualism,earlyacquisitionoftwophonologicallydistinctlanguages)à

– Implicationsforinter-generationalchangeinusagepatternsà– Implicationsforcommunity-levelchange(contact-inducedchange)

IsHLPhoneticsDifferent?• “Itiswellknownthatbilingualspeakershavedifferent

phoneticrepresentationsthandomonolinguals(Caramazza etal.1974;Bullocketal.2004;Sundara etal.2006),sothepresenceofaheritage‘accent’shouldnotcomeasatotalsurprise.”(Polinsky &Kagan2007)

• Low-levelphoneticdifferencesinvowelssupportedbystudiesof– French(Mack1990),WesternArmenian(Godson2004),Korean(Baker

&Trofimovich 2005),Arabic(Saadah 2011),Mandarin(Changetal.2011,Yang2014),Spanish(Ronquest 2013)

• Maybemotivatedbymaximizingbothlanguage-internalandcross-linguisticdistinctions(Changetal2011)

IsHLPhonologyDifferent?• “heritagespeakersgenerallysoundsonativelike– onecould

easilyimaginethattherewouldbenodifferencesinphonologicalrepresentationsbetweentheheritagelanguageandthebaseline,althoughthatremainstobeshown.”(Polinsky &Kagan2007)

• StudiesofHLvowelscitedinpreviousslideshowlackofevidenceforvowelmergers– SupportsPolinsky &Kagan’s(2007)claim

• Doesnotconsiderchangeinphoneticconditioning– ChangesinphoneticconditioningTorontoHeritagePolishdevoicing

(Lyskawa etal2016)à evidenceforphonologicalchange

TheSpecificsofTorontoCantonese

7

http://lmp.ucla.edu/profile.aspx?menu=004&langid=73

• 1960s:FirstlargewaveofimmigrationfromHongKong(UKColony~90%Cantonesespeakers)toCanada

• 1980s-1997:Moreimmigration,motivatedbyfearsofhandovertoChina• 2011 Census:178,000+(3.1%+ofpopulation)CantonesespeakersinToronto

• 2ndmostwidelyspokenlanguage(afterEnglish)

HomelandCantonese TorontoHeritageCantonese

http://www.whereig.com/images/cities/toronto-location-map.jpg

1960s- 1997

AwarenessofaDistinctVariety

• Butwhatphonetic/phonologicalfeaturescharacterizethis“accent”?– Vowels?Belowthelevelofconsciousawareness?

“someoftheaccentsareterrible,youcantellthey’reCanadiancantonese [sic]speakers”

“whatbothersme,isthatit’snotauthenticCantonese,butcanadiancantonese [sic]” Internetdiscussionboardcommentscitedin

Nagy(2016:21)

CantoneseMonophthongSystem

• 8contrastivemonophthongs– 7outof8vowelsincludedinpreviousanalyses(Tse2015,2016,InPress,Accepted)

– Unanalyzedvowelis/ɐ/

front central back

unround round round

i y u

ɛ œ ɐ ɔ

a

ExtensivedescriptioninYue-Hashimoto(1972)andBauer&Benedict(1998)

TheData• HLVC(HeritageLanguageVariationandChange)ProjectCorpus(Nagyetal2009,Nagy2011)– Formoreinfo:http://projects.chass.utoronto.ca/ngn/HLVC

• Corpusconsistingof– Digitalrecordings(.wav)of~40+speakersX8languages

– Foreachspeaker• hour-longsociolinguisticinterviews(spontaneousspeechsample)

• EthnicOrientationQuestionnaireresponses• picturenamingtaskresponses

SpeakersExamined

GEN1Speakers(N=10)

• Ages46-82• BornandraisedinHong

Kong,cametoTorontoasadults,ANDhavelivedinTorontofor>20years

• VariablelevelsofEnglishproficiency

GEN2Speakers(N=10)

• Ages16-44• GrewupinToronto,learned

Cantoneseprimarilyathome

• PreferenceforusingEnglishacrossmostcontexts(basedonresponsestoEthnicOrientationQuestionnaire)

• Sub-setofspeakers(N=20)fromtheHLVCCorpus• Self-reportedCantoneseproficiencylevel:adequateforhour-long

spontaneousconversation• Englishcode-mixingandswitchingallowed (observedforallspeakers)

TokenDistributionPerSpeaker• Wheneverpossible

– Cantonesetokensselectedfromafterthefirst15minutesofinterview

– F1andF2measurementsrecorded(basedonPraatcalculatedaveragesforsteady-stateportions)

• Foreachvowel– 10tokensinopensyllable

context,5tokensinvelarcontextà 15total

– AllTone1(highleveltone)

• 15tokensX8vowelsX20speakersX2formantmeasurements=• GRANDTOTAL:2400voweltokens(4800formantmeasurements)

• Exceptions• Co-occurrenceconstraints

• Ex:/ɐ/doesnotoccurinopensyllablecontextàAlltokensfromclosedsyllablecontext

• Lowtokenfrequency• first15minutesofinterview,

ethnicorientationquestionnaire,andpicturenamingtaskrecordingalsoincluded

• Ifstilllessthan15tokens,otherphoneticcontextsalsoincluded

AnalysisProcedures

13

DependentVariable

F1,F2

IndependentVariables

FixedEffectsFormergers:Vowel CategoryForinter-generationalvowelshifts: GENForphoneticconditioning:followingconsonantPost-Hoc:precedingconsonant

RandomEffectsSpeaker,Word

MixedEffectsModelingusing R-brul (Johnson2009)foreachvowel category(ortwovowelcategories)

Note:Step-upandStep-downmatchinallresultsreported,BestStep-downshowninallcases

• AllformantmeasurementsnormalizedusingLobanov techniqueinNORMsuite(ThomasandKendall2007)

/i/vs./y/

GEN1 GEN2

F1 ** *

F2 ** ***

Legend

n.s.

*<0.05

**<0.01

***<0.001

/u/vs./ɔ/

GEN1 GEN2

F1 *** ***

F2 n.s. n.s.

Mergers?

Distinct;Nomerger Distinct;Nomerger

Mergers?GEN1Is/ɐ/significantly differentfrom:

/ɛ/ /œ/ /a/

F1 *** * ***

F2 *** n. s. n. s.

GEN2Is/ɐ/significantly differentfrom:

/ɛ/ /œ/ /a/

F1 *** *** ***

F2 *** n.s. ***

Legend

n.s.

*<0.05

**<0.01

***<0.001Distinct;nomerger Increasing/ɐ/vs./a/distinction

IsGENa significantpredictor?

/i/ /y/ /u/ /ɛ/ /œ/ /ɔ/ /ɐ/ /a/

F1 n.s. * n.s. * n.s. ** n.s. n.s.

F2 n.s. *** n.s. * n.s. n.s. * n.s.

VowelShifts?Legendn.s.

*<0.05

**<0.01

***<0.001

GEN 1F2 of/ɐ/

r2 [fixed]=0.318, r2 [random]=0.139r2 [total]=0.457

Preceding(p <0.01)**Coeff. N Mean(Hz)

/t͡sʰ/ 82 36 1479/t͡s/ 74 10 1484/t/ 52 35 1450/s/ 23 9 1431/kʰ/ -7 5 1411/m/ -21 15 1366/p/ -96 39 1317/ŋ/ -108 1 1306

GEN 2F2 of/ɐ/

r2 [fixed]=0.00, r2 [random]=0.243

r2 [total]=0.243NOFIXEDPREDICTORS

N Mean(Hz)/tsʰ/ 17 1545/t/ 50 1541/m/ 18 1522/s/ 30 1508/t͡s/ 2 1441/h/ 1 1617/p/ 24 1427/kʰ/ 5 1343/l/ 2 1368

• Allarecoronalobstruents• Coronalobstruents conditionhigherF2amongGEN1• BUTchangeinphoneticconditioningforGEN2

ChangesinPhoneticConditioning?

Moreabout/ɐ/• ForHKCantonese,/ɐ/vs./a/distinctiondescribedasprimarilyalength

(quantity)contrast(cf.Bauer&Benedict1998)• ButbothF1andF2for/ɐ/vs./a/distinctforGEN2• AlsoGEN2frontingof/ɐ/ANDstabilityof/a/• Conclusion:/ɐ/vs./a/distinctionbecomingprimarilyavowelquality

distinctionamongGEN2speakers

Moreabout/ɐ/• GreaterstandarddeviationofF1/F2meansforGEN2speakers• LossofphoneticconditioningamongGEN2

Summary

1. Isthereevidenceofvowelmergers?– No,all8monophthongcategoriesremaindistinctforGEN2speakers

2. Isthereevidenceofinter-generationallow-levelphoneticdifferences?– Vowelshifts?• For/y/,/ɛ/,/ɔ/and/ɐ/

– Changesinphoneticconditioning?• Precedingcoronalobstruents conditionhigherF2for/ɐ/amongGEN1only

Conclusion• “onecouldeasilyimaginethattherewouldbeno

differencesinphonologicalrepresentationsbetweentheheritagelanguageandthebaseline”(Polinsky &Kagan2007)

• Ifby“phonologicalrepresentations”,wemeanphonemiccontraststhenyes

• BUT,Representationsmayalsoinvolvefeatures(ex:laxvs.tense)

• Changefromvowelquantitytoqualitydistinctionarguablyachangeinphonologicalrepresentation

• alsolow-levelphoneticdifferencesmaybeinfluencedbydifferentconstraints(cf.Lyskawa etal2016)à evidenceofphonologicalchangeàmayhaveimplicationsforlong-termsoundchange

NextSteps• Inter-generationalcomparison– Addmorespeakersandvoweltokenswiththehelpofforcedalignment(cf.Peters&Tse2016)

– Considermorephoneticcontextsandlexicalfactors?• Cross-communitycomparison– IsthereevidenceforthesamechangesinHongKongCantonese?à Homelanddatanowavailable

– TostrengthensupportforcontactwithTorontoEnglish

多謝감사합니다дякую СпасибоGraziemolto gratsiə namuor:əHLVCCantoneseRAs:AbigailChanKarenChanTiffanyChungRachelCoulterRadu CraioveanuJoyceFokRitaPangAndrewPetersMarioSoGaoJosephineTongSarahTruongKa-manWongOliviaYuMinyi Zhu

Collaborators:Yoonjung KangAlexeiKochetovJamesWalker

FundingforHLVCProject:SSHRC,UniversityofToronto

Additionalacknowledgements:NaomiNagyScottKieslingShelome GoodenUniversityofPittsburghDietrichSchoolofArts&SciencesandLinguisticsDepartmentJevonHeathMelindaFrickeJeffreyLamontagneClaudeMauk

HTTP://PROJECTS.CHASS.UTORONTO.CA/NGN/HLVC23

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References2/2RONQUEST,REBECCA E. 2013.AnacousticexaminationofunstressedvowelreductioninHeritageSpanish.Selectedproceedingsofthe15thhispanic linguisticssymposium,ed.byChadHowe,SarahE.Blackwell,andMargaretLubbersQuesada,157–171.http://www.lingref.com/cpp/hls/15/paper2882.pdf.SAADAH,EMAN.2011.TheproductionofArabicvowelsbyEnglishL2learnersandheritagespeakersofArabic.UniversityofIllinoisatUrbana-Champaignph.d. dissertation.https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/24104.THOMAS,ERIK.;andTYLER KENDALL.2007.NORM:Thevowelnormalizationandplottingsuite.http://lingtools.uoregon.edu/norm/norm1.php.TSE,HOLMAN.InPress.VariationandChangeinTorontoHeritageCantonese:AnAnalysisofTwoMonophthongsAcrossTwoGenerations.AsiaPacificLanguageVariation 2.124–156.TSE,HOLMAN.Accepted.Contact-InducedSplitsinTorontoHeritageCantoneseMid-Vowels.Linguistica Atlantica 35.TSE,HOLMAN.2015.VariationandChangeinFourContrastiveVowelsinTorontoHeritageCantonese.UniversityofPittsburghcomprehensivepaper.http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/20436/.TSE,HOLMAN.2016.ContrastMaintenanceandInnovationinTorontoHeritageCantoneseHighVowels.TheOhioStateUniversity,Columbus,OH:UniversityofPittsburgh.http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/27238/.YANG,JING.2014.AcousticpropertiesofvowelproductioninMandarin-Englishbilingualandcorrespondingmonolingualchildren.TheOhioStateUniversity.https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=osu1392832160&disposition=attachment.YUE-HASHIMOTO,OI-KAN. 1972.PhonologyofCantonese. Cambridge[England]:CambridgeUniversityPress.

Slidesavailableat:http://www.pitt.edu/˜hbt3/presentations.html

HERITAGE LANGUAGE VARIATION AND CHANGE IN TORONTOHTTP://PROJECTS.CHASS.UTORONTO.CA/NGN/HLVC