Coronal fricatives among L1 and L2 Hul'q'umi'num' speakers

Authors

  • Phil Howson University of Victoria
  • Sonya Bird University of Victoria

Abstract

This project tracks the acquisition of the coronal fricatives /θ, s, ɬ, ʃ/ in Hul’q’umi’num’ (Central Salish) by 3 L2 learners across a three-year period (2016-2019) and compares them with those of 2 L1 speakers to determine acquisition trajectories. We measured dynamic COG to glean information about place of articulation. We also incorporated COG, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis into a PCA analysis to determine how learners arranged their phonetic space. COG results revealed differences between and within the groups of L1 and L2 speakers; the largest difference was for /θ/ across L1 speakers, pronounced as either an interdental or a dental consonant (see Suttles (2004) on dialectal variation of /θ/). All L2 speakers produced /θ/ as an interdental in 2016, but two speakers produced a dental in 2019. This suggests an increased awareness among L2 speakers of Hul’q’umi’num’ phonetic detail, leading to a decrease in L1 transfer effects (English /θ/ is interdental). The PCA analysis revealed significant differences in how COG, SD, skewness, and kurtosis were utilized by each speaker to distinguish segments, although the dispersion between segments was similar. This suggests that speakers organize their acoustic spaces in different ways to achieve the same communicative goals.

 

Suttles, W. (2004). Musqueam Reference Grammar (University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver)

Author Biographies

Phil Howson, University of Victoria

Postdoctoral fellow, Department of Linguistics, University of Victoria

Sonya Bird, University of Victoria

Associate Professor and Director of the Speech Research Laboratory, Department of Linguistics, University of VictoriaGraduate Advisor, Department of Indigenous Education, University of Victoria 

Additional Files

Published

2021-08-17

How to Cite

1.
Howson P, Bird S. Coronal fricatives among L1 and L2 Hul’q’umi’num’ speakers. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2021 Aug. 17 [cited 2024 Nov. 18];49(3):30-1. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/3913

Issue

Vol. 49 No. 3 (2021)

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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