Perception and Production of Welsh Vowels by Welsh-Spanish Bilinguals
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Perception and Production of Welsh Vowels by Welsh-Spanish Bilinguals Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Bell, Elise Adrienne Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 05/10/2021 19:07:55 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/630174 Perception and production of Welsh vowels by Welsh-Spanish bilinguals by Elise Bell Copyright c Elise Bell 2018 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Linguistics In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate College The University of Arizona 2018 fưhWư`Nư>a^=ư Pcg?ưD\QLư @ưĜµğÚưĶÜưƑưKčū¶ŨĆķĤưBĸĢÍưƦưŪưŴìvƅưƧưúƢưŕ }ưŵí·ư ĐũưŋŖŔűư ƨưMĔĎư AęưƗưbØƓņ ư u ¡ưŌť¢Ơƕʼnijư ĹÝư jÆěîư ƣŇƥ¸Ěư kÐŬïdŒðư êƚư £ư ţĠÒ¤ưŶñưýŷưưűōËưưäçưƎư°ď¹ŧzćĺĥưŗץŤĝÓŸưãŘưŹòºưÏÎưÞưEŃřư Fmƈ<ư XƘĒƩư$0ư, %eư ]ÑưTĞIJ¥ư nź7ư Yơƪư &1ư /#'4ư _oƇø{ưli»Śư GpŻ8ư ZƝĖƫư(2ư-!)5ư Oþĵư ư¦ư|ÕưŅáưƒư§đwƆÿ ưąŮưĦƖè¼ħżưƙœňĨưƏ½ưxı¯ ¨ŭưůƛŲ Ļ ưļßư ŽöÇưâưńŎĀÛưàưƐ¾ư²ŦqƋĈĽĩưžľưſ÷ÈưRŢƮƀ¿ưCĘÀëư UưóśƬưăæưƁûưVưõyƤ ưŜÁt®ưƊùĕŰư´ĪưŏŝÂŐÌưƟĴ©ÙưģưªċÉƌĉĿīưrĬ«ưšġÃĭ¬ưƂôsƃư ƄưưŊÄőƍưưåéưƉüư³ĊĮưŞÖƜČÔƯư H9ư [ƞėƭư*3ư."+6ư IāųƔŀįưJ şÊŁŠ:ư ;Ă~ưSłİư , 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: Elise Bell 4 Dedication Y mae Patagonia yn annwyl i mi, Gwlad newydd y Cymry mwyneiddlon yw hi; Anadlu gwir ryddid a gawn yn y wlad, O gyrhaedd gormesiaeth a brad: Gwlad, gwlad, pleidiol wyf i’m gwlad, Tra haul y nen uwchben ein pau, O! bydded i’r Wladfa barhau. - ‘Gwlad Newydd y Cymry’ gan Lewis Evans, 1875 5 Acknowledgments Thanks to my family for supporting me the last five years, especially during the last few months of writing. Because no publication is complete in my sister’s eyes without afewanimalfacts,Imustinformyouthatthefivefamiliesofmarinemammalsare pinnipeds, cetaceans, sireneans, otters, and polar bears. Also, you can usually tell a sea lion from a seal by its ears. Thanks also to my committee, Mike Hammond, Natasha Warner, and Miquel Simonet, for their patience, insight, and encouragement. Their mentorship and the example they set as scholars and academics is one I am grateful to learn from. Thanks especially to Mike for mentioning Welsh in the first class I ever had with him. Diolch yn fawr iawn to everyone in Argentina who helped me move forward with my research by inviting me to events, introducing me to the community, and making me feel welcome in your homes. Luned, Nadine, Ana, Clare, Noe, and especially Virginia, your help made all of this possible. And the biggest thank you of all goes to gang. MCV, MF, SD, you know who you are, and you know that I couldn’t have done this without you. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant nos. 1729883 ‘Doctoral Dissertation Research: Perception and production of vowel contrasts in Welsh-Spanish bilinguals’ and 1453724 ‘SBE-RCUK: Experimental and Descrip- tive Investigations of Welsh (cym) Consonant Mutation’. Support for this research was also provided by the Tinker Foundation, the University of Arizona Graduate and Professional Student Council, and the University of Arizona Linguistics Department. 6 Table of Contents List of Figures ..................................... 9 List of Tables ...................................... 10 Abstract ......................................... 12 Chapter 1. Introduction .............................. 13 1.0.1. Welsh in Wales . 14 1.0.2. Welsh in Argentina . 14 1.0.3. Vitality of Welsh today . 16 1.1. Phonetics and phonology . 18 1.1.1. Vowels of Welsh . 18 1.2. Bilingualism.................................... 20 1.2.1. Phonetic cross-linguistic interference . 21 1.3. Experimentaloverview. 22 1.3.1. Participants . 23 1.3.2. Language background data collection . 24 1.3.3. Experiments ............................... 25 Chapter 2. Production ............................... 27 2.1. Introduction.................................... 27 2.1.1. Welsh phonology . 30 2.2. Phonetics of Northern Welsh . 30 2.2.1. Methods.................................. 31 2.2.2. Results .................................. 33 2.3. Phonetics of Argentinean Welsh . 37 2.3.1. Methods.................................. 37 2.3.2. Results .................................. 38 2.4. Linear discriminant analysis . 41 2.4.1. Predictable vowel length . 42 2.4.2. Unpredictable vowel length . 44 2.4.3. Discussion . 48 2.5. Argentinean Spanish . 49 2.5.1. Spanish phonology . 49 2.5.2. Methods.................................. 50 2.5.3. Results .................................. 51 2.6. Spanish - Welsh linear discriminant analysis . 54 2.7. Discussion..................................... 56 7 Table of Contents—Continued Chapter 3. Discrimination .............................. 60 3.1. Introduction.................................... 60 3.2. Experiment 1: vowel discrimination . 62 3.2.1. Methods.................................. 63 3.2.2. Results .................................. 68 3.3. Experiment2:vowelproduction . 70 3.3.1. Methods: Welsh-English group . 71 3.3.2. Methods: Welsh-Spanish group . 73 3.3.3. Results .................................. 74 3.4. Linear discriminant analysis . 75 3.4.1. Results .................................. 82 3.5. Language dominance . 83 3.6. Discussion..................................... 85 Chapter 4. Identification .............................. 88 4.1. Introduction.................................... 88 4.1.1. Vowels of Welsh and Spanish . 90 4.2. Methods...................................... 93 4.2.1. Participants . 93 4.2.2. Stimulus creation . 94 4.2.3. Trial structure . 99 4.2.4. Procedure................................. 99 4.3. Results....................................... 100 4.3.1. E↵ect of acoustic values on vowel identification . 101 4.3.2. Cue reliance and boundary definition . 104 4.3.3. E↵ect of language background on relative cue weighting . 105 4.4. Discussion..................................... 107 Chapter 5. Conclusion ................................ 110 5.1. Chapter 2: Production . 111 5.2. Chapter 3: Discrimination . 112 5.3. Chapter 4: Identification . 112 5.4. Futuredirections ................................. 113 5.4.1. Historical language change . 113 5.4.2. Second language acquisition . 114 5.4.3. Contact with Welsh educators . 114 5.5. Minority language bilingualism . 115 Appendices ........................................ Appendix A. Chapter 1 ................................ 117 A.1. Bilingual Language Profile questionnaires . 117 8 Table of Contents—Continued Appendix B. Chapter 2 ................................ 133 B.1. NorthernWelshitems .............................. 133 B.2. ArgentineanWelshitems. 134 B.3.Spanishitems................................... 135 Appendix C. Chapter 3 ................................ 136 C.1. 4-IOstimulusitems................................ 136 C.2.4-IOtrialschematic ............................... 137 C.3. Welsh-Spanish bilingual production task items . 138 C.4. Welsh-English bilingual production task items . 140 Appendix D. Chapter 4 ................................ 141 D.1. Welsh-English bilingual production task items . 141 References ........................................ 142 9 List of Figures Figure 2.1. Plot of normalized F1 values for Northern Welsh vowels with pre- dictableandunpredictablevowellength. 34 Figure 2.2. Plot of normalized F2 values for Northern Welsh vowels with pre- dictableandunpredictablevowellength. 35 Figure 2.3. Plot of duration values for Northern Welsh vowels with predictable and unpredictablevowellength.. 36 Figure 2.4. Plot of normalized F1 values for Argentinean Welsh vowels with pre- dictableandunpredictablevowellength. 39 Figure 2.5. Plot of normalized F2 values for Argentinean Welsh vowels with pre- dictableandunpredictablevowellength. 40 Figure 2.6. Plot of duration values for Argentinean Welsh vowels with predictable andunpredictablevowellength. 41 Figure 2.7. Predictable vowel data (Argentinean Welsh) . 44 Figure 2.8. Unpredictable vowel data (Argentinean Welsh) . 47 Figure 2.9. Variation in F1 in Argentinean Spanish . 52 Figure 2.10. Variation in F2 in Argentinean Spanish . 53 Figure 2.11. Variation in duration in Argentinean Spanish . 53 Figure 2.12. Argentinean Welsh vowel data plotted on a cartesian plane . 55 Figure 3.1. Structure of a single ‘change’ discrimination trial. 65 Figure 3.2. Structure of a single ‘no-change’ discrimination trial. 65 Figure 3.3. Distribution of discrimination task responses by stimulus vowel. 69 Figure 3.4. Normalized F1-F2 plots of Welsh-English and Welsh-Spanish vowel productions ....................................