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The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception...
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The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation

A special issue of Languages (ISSN 2226-471X).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 21617

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Ineke Mennen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of English, University of Graz, 8010 Graz, Austria
Interests: intonation; second language acquisition; first language attrition; phonetics; intonational phonology
Prof. Dr. Laura Colantoni

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Spanish & Portuguese, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S1K7, Canada
Interests: phonetics-phonology; second language acquisition; intonation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The goal of this Special Issue is to collect state-of-the art articles on the intonational patterns of different types of bilinguals (e.g., second language learners; heritage speakers; simultaneous bilinguals). The focus will be on the perception and/or production of sentence-level patterns, such as the marking of information structure, the realization of sentence types or the phonetic realization of intonational events (pitch accents or boundary tones). We particularly encourage papers on understudied language pairings.  

Research on intonation and bilingualism has expanded in the last ten years to include a variety of structures and of languages in contact, but it still remains an underexplored territory (Trouvain & Braun 2020) with very few models that have attempted to account for what aspects can be transferred from language to language (Mennen 2015). There are many questions that remain unanswered: Can we determine a hierarchy of difficulty or transferability? How does prosody interact with other components of the grammar, such as morphology or syntax, in a contact situation? Which aspects are more prone to bidirectional interference? Which changes in intonation make speakers sound foreign in their second (or first) language?

There are very few thematic volumes on the topic (e.g., Delais-Roussarie et al. 2015), and even fewer Special Issues (e.g., the Special Issue of Studies in Second Language Acquisition edited by Mennen & De Leeuw, 2014) that gather state-of-the art experimental research. Thus, we believe that a volume with experimental contributions that cover a wide variety of languages would both deepen our understanding of intonation more broadly and broadcast new methodological developments in the analysis of intonation.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400-600 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the guest editors (Email A) or to /Languages/ editorial office (languages@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Tentative completion schedule:

  • Abstract submission deadline: 29 October 2021
  • Notification of abstract acceptance: 15 November 2021
  • Full manuscript deadline: 28 February 2022

References

Delais-Roussarie, Elizabeth; Avanzi, Mathieu & Herment, Sophie (Eds.). (2015). Prosody and Languages in Contact: L2 acquisition, attrition, languages in multilingual situations. Springer Verlag.

Mennen, Ineke. (2015). Beyond segments: towards a L2 intonation learning theory. In: Delais-Roussarie, E.; Avanzi, M. & Herment, S. (Eds.). Prosody and Languages in Contact: L2 acquisition, attrition, languages in multilingual situations (pp. 171-188). Springer Verlag.

Mennen, I., & De Leeuw, E. (2014). BEYOND SEGMENTS: Prosody in SLA. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 36(2), 183-194. doi:10.1017/S0272263114000138.

Trouvain, Jürgen & Braun, Bettina. (2020). Sentence Prosody in a Second Language. In: Gussenhoven, C., & Chen, A., The Oxford Handbook of Language Prosody (pp. 605-618).

Prof. Dr. Ineke Mennen
Prof. Dr. Laura Colantoni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Languages is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • intonation
  • bilingualism
  • second language acquisition
  • perception
  • production
  • first language attrition

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

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6 pages, 293 KiB  
Editorial
The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation
by Laura Colantoni and Ineke Mennen
Languages 2023, 8(2), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8020108 - 17 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1289
Abstract
We put together this Special Issue with the goal of collecting state-of-the art articles on the intonational patterns of different types of bilinguals, with a particular focus on understudied language pairings, and we believe that we have succeeded [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

28 pages, 1794 KiB  
Article
Prosodic and Segmental Aspects of Pronunciation Training and Their Effects on L2
by Silvia Dahmen, Martine Grice and Simon Roessig
Languages 2023, 8(1), 74; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8010074 - 06 Mar 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2582
Abstract
Some studies on training effects of pronunciation instruction have claimed that the training of prosodic features has effects at the segmental level and that the training of segmental features has effects at the prosodic level, with greater effects reported when prosody is the [...] Read more.
Some studies on training effects of pronunciation instruction have claimed that the training of prosodic features has effects at the segmental level and that the training of segmental features has effects at the prosodic level, with greater effects reported when prosody is the main focus of training. This paper revisits this claim by looking at the effects of pronunciation training on Italian learners of German. In a pre-post-test design, we investigate acoustic changes after training in learners’ productions of two features regarded as prosodic and two features regarded as segmental. The prosodic features were the pitch excursion of final rises in yes–no questions and the reduction in schwa epenthesis in word-final closed syllables. The segmental features were final devoicing and voice onset time (VOT) in plosives. We discuss the results for three groups (with segmental training, with prosody training, and with no pronunciation training). Our results indicate that there are positive effects of prosody-oriented training on the production of segments, especially when training focuses on syllable structure and prosodic prominence (stress and accent). They also indicate that teaching segmental and prosodic aspects of pronunciation together is beneficial. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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25 pages, 1397 KiB  
Article
Spanish–English Cross-Linguistic Influence on Heritage Bilinguals’ Production of Uptalk
by Ji Young Kim
Languages 2023, 8(1), 22; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8010022 - 09 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1667
Abstract
The present study examines the production of uptalk in Spanish and in English by Spanish heritage speakers in Southern California. Following the L2 Intonation Learning Theory, we propose that cross-linguistic influence in heritage bilinguals’ uptalk may occur along multiple dimensions of intonation. In [...] Read more.
The present study examines the production of uptalk in Spanish and in English by Spanish heritage speakers in Southern California. Following the L2 Intonation Learning Theory, we propose that cross-linguistic influence in heritage bilinguals’ uptalk may occur along multiple dimensions of intonation. In this study, we examined the systemic dimension (i.e., presence of uptalk and presence of uptalk with IP-final deaccenting), the frequency dimension (i.e., frequency of uptalk and frequency of uptalk with IP-final deaccenting), and the realizational dimension (i.e., pitch excursion and rise duration) of heritage bilinguals’ uptalk. Our data showed that the three dimensions of intonation demonstrate varying degrees of cross-linguistic influence. The heritage bilinguals produced uptalk with IP-final deaccenting in both languages (i.e., systemic dimension), but produced it more in English than in Spanish (i.e., frequency dimension). That is, IP-final deaccenting emerges in heritage bilinguals’ uptalk in Spanish, but heritage bilinguals seem to recognize that this is an English feature that is not allowed in Spanish and try to suppress it as much as possible when producing uptalk in Spanish. However, in the realizational dimension, the heritage bilinguals demonstrated either phonetic assimilation to English (i.e., pitch excursion) or individual variability conditioned by language learning experience (i.e., rise duration). The asymmetry found across the dimensions suggests that, when bilinguals’ two languages are in competition for finite online resources, such as in the case of spontaneous speech production, phonological distinctions between L1 and L2 prosodic structures are kept, whereas phonetic differences that do not lead to any change in meaning are more prone to undergo cross-linguistic influence in order to reduce online processing cost. This study attempts to fill a gap in the literature on the cross-linguistic influence of intonation by bringing attention to heritage bilinguals. Heritage bilingualism introduces bilingual contexts that are often left unnoticed in traditional L2 acquisition scenarios (e.g., transfer from L2 to L1 intonation, asymmetry between order of acquisition and language dominance). Given that many aspects of cross-linguistic influence are shared across bilinguals, the investigation of heritage bilinguals’ intonation will contribute to building robust models of bilingual intonation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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22 pages, 1698 KiB  
Article
Does Japanese/German L1 Metrical and Tonal Structure Constrain the Acquisition of French L2 Morphology?
by Cyrille Granget and Elisabeth Delais-Roussarie
Languages 2022, 7(4), 305; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040305 - 01 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1372
Abstract
In different studies dedicated to the acquisition of verbal morphology by bilingual children or by L2 learners, it has been noted that differences in the acquisition process cannot be accounted for by only considering the distance between L1 and L2 morphology. Some forms, [...] Read more.
In different studies dedicated to the acquisition of verbal morphology by bilingual children or by L2 learners, it has been noted that differences in the acquisition process cannot be accounted for by only considering the distance between L1 and L2 morphology. Some forms, such as auxiliaries, may occur in L2 productions without being motivated by L1 morphology. To account for this, the prosodic transfer hypothesis—according to which the acquisition of morphology in the non-dominant language is influenced by the prosody of the dominant language—has been formulated. That prosodic features may influence the acquisition of morphology is interesting as it shows that the acquisition process must be apprehended by considering interfaces and interrelations between the various levels of linguistic description. The aim of this contribution is thus twofold: (i) clarifying to which aspects of prosody prosodic transfer hypothesis refers (specifically, among tonal and metrical prosodic elements, which one comes into play to account for morphological development); and (ii) explaining the importance of considering grammatical interfaces in study on L2 development. To do so, an exploratory study, which relies on the analysis of L2 French narratives produced by two learners with L1 Japanese and two with L1 German, was achieved. This preliminary analysis of the data suggests that metrical structure—more precisely, the nature of the basic metrical unit—may constrain the occurrence of auxiliary and vowel-final forms in the productions of Japanese learners. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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28 pages, 6632 KiB  
Article
Prosodic Transfer in Contact Varieties: Vocative Calls in Metropolitan and Basaá-Cameroonian French
by Fatima Hamlaoui, Marzena Żygis, Jonas Engelmann and Sergio I. Quiroz
Languages 2022, 7(4), 285; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040285 - 07 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2146
Abstract
This paper examines the production of vocative calls in (Northern) Metropolitan French (MF) and Cameroonian French (CF) as it is spoken by native speakers of a tone language, Basaá. While the results of our Discourse Completion Task confirm previous descriptions of MF, they [...] Read more.
This paper examines the production of vocative calls in (Northern) Metropolitan French (MF) and Cameroonian French (CF) as it is spoken by native speakers of a tone language, Basaá. While the results of our Discourse Completion Task confirm previous descriptions of MF, they also further our understanding of the relationship between pragmatics and prosody across different groups of French speakers. MF favors the vocative chant in routine contexts and a rising-falling contour in urgent contexts. In contrast, context has little influence on the choice of contour in CF. A melody consisting of the surface realization of lexical tones is produced in both contexts. Regarding acoustic parameters, context only exerts a significant effect on the loudness of vocative calls (RMS amplitude) and has little effect on their F0 height, F0 range and duration. A target-use of vocative calls in CF thus does not amount to target-like use of the original standard target language, MF. Our results provide novel evidence for the transfer of lexical tones onto the contact variety of an intonation language. They also corroborate previous studies involving the pragmatics-prosody interface: the more marked a prosodic pattern is (here, the vocative chant), the more difficult it is to acquire. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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26 pages, 19795 KiB  
Article
Intonation Patterns Used in Non-Neutral Statements by Czech Learners of Italian and Spanish: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison
by Andrea Pešková
Languages 2022, 7(4), 282; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040282 - 02 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1987
Abstract
The objective of the study is to contribute to our understanding of the acquisition of second language intonation by comparing L2 Italian and L2 Spanish as produced by L1 Czech learners. Framed within the L2 Intonation Learning theory, the study sheds light on [...] Read more.
The objective of the study is to contribute to our understanding of the acquisition of second language intonation by comparing L2 Italian and L2 Spanish as produced by L1 Czech learners. Framed within the L2 Intonation Learning theory, the study sheds light on which tonal events tend to be successfully learnt and why. The study examines different types of non-neutral statements (narrow focus, statements of the obvious, what-exclamatives), obtained by means of a Discourse Completion Task. The findings show that the two groups diverge significantly in producing the nuclear pitch accents L+H* (L2 Spanish) and (L+)H*+L (L2 Italian), which is indicative of a target-like realization in each language. However, the learners struggle with the acquisition of the target boundary tones HL% and L!H% in L2 Spanish and prenuclear pitch accents in both Romance varieties. It is speculated that this is due not only to difficulties in acquiring semantic or systemic dimensions, but also to perceptual salience and frequency effects. In addition, the study explores individual differences and reveals no significant effects of the time spent in an L2-speaking country, the age of learning and the amount of active use of a foreign language on accuracy in L2 production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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18 pages, 3163 KiB  
Article
L1 Influences on Bulgarian-Accented German: Prosodic Units and Prenuclear Pitch Accents
by Bistra Andreeva and Snezhina Dimitrova
Languages 2022, 7(4), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040263 - 14 Oct 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1409
Abstract
This study investigates the L1 influence on the use of accentual patterns, choice of prenuclear pitch accent types and their realization on L2 prosody. We use Mennen’s LILt model as a framework for our analysis. We recorded ten Bulgarian female speakers of German [...] Read more.
This study investigates the L1 influence on the use of accentual patterns, choice of prenuclear pitch accent types and their realization on L2 prosody. We use Mennen’s LILt model as a framework for our analysis. We recorded ten Bulgarian female speakers of German and ten female native German speakers who read Aesop’s fable The North Wind and the Sun. We found that the tendency for the Bulgarian native speakers to use more pitch accents than German native speakers is transferred to the L2 German of the Bulgarian learners. L*+H was the most frequent prenuclear pitch accent used by all groups. We also found that the Bulgarian learners stressed more function words and tolerated more stress clashes than the native German speakers. When speaking German, under the influence of the statistical regularities that relate to prosodic word patterns in their mother tongue, Bulgarian learners phrased their L2 speech into a higher number of shorter prosodic words, and therefore realized more pitch accents and aligned the high tonal target earlier than the native speakers. Concerning the variable alignment of the high target, we propose the prosodic word or the two-syllable window as the tentative candidate for an anchorage region. Our findings can be explained with respect to age of learning, as proposed by LILt’s general theoretical assumptions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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27 pages, 9015 KiB  
Article
Plasticity of Native Intonation in the L1 of English Migrants to Austria
by Ineke Mennen, Ulrich Reubold, Kerstin Endes and Robert Mayr
Languages 2022, 7(3), 241; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030241 - 16 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2090
Abstract
This study examines the plasticity of native language intonation in English-Austrian German sequential bilinguals who have migrated to Austria in adulthood by comparing it to that of monolingual English and monolingual Austrian control speakers. Intonation was analysed along four intonation dimensions proposed by [...] Read more.
This study examines the plasticity of native language intonation in English-Austrian German sequential bilinguals who have migrated to Austria in adulthood by comparing it to that of monolingual English and monolingual Austrian control speakers. Intonation was analysed along four intonation dimensions proposed by the L2 Intonation Learning theory (LILt): the inventory of categorical phonological elements (‘systemic’ dimension), their phonetic implementation (‘realizational’), the meaning associated with phonological elements (‘semantic’), and their frequency of use (‘frequency’). This allowed us to test whether each intonation dimension is equally permeable to L2-on-L1 influences. The results revealed L2-on-L1 effects on each dimension. These consistently took the form of assimilation. The extent of assimilation appeared to depend on whether the cross-language differences were gradient or categorical, with the former predominantly resulting in intermediate merging and the latter in a complete transfer. The results suggest that native intonation remains plastic in all its dimensions, resulting in pervasive modifications towards the L2. Finally, in this first application of the LILt to the context of L1 attrition, the study confirms the model’s suitability not only to acquisition of L2 intonation but also for predicting where modifications of L1 intonation are likely to occur. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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17 pages, 1402 KiB  
Article
Change across Time in L2 Intonation vs. Segments: A Longitudinal Study of the English of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
by Niamh Kelly
Languages 2022, 7(3), 210; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030210 - 09 Aug 2022
Viewed by 1793
Abstract
Research on L1 to L2 transfer has mainly focused on segments, while less work has examined transfer in intonation patterns. Particularly, little research has investigated transfer patterns when the L1 has a lexical pitch contrast, such as tone or lexical pitch accent, and [...] Read more.
Research on L1 to L2 transfer has mainly focused on segments, while less work has examined transfer in intonation patterns. Particularly, little research has investigated transfer patterns when the L1 has a lexical pitch contrast, such as tone or lexical pitch accent, and the L2 does not. The current investigation is a longitudinal study of the L2 English of an L1 Norwegian speaker, comparing two timeframes. One suprasegmental feature and one segmental feature are examined: rise–fall pitch accents and /z/, because Norwegian and English have different patterns for these features. The results showed that the speaker actually produced more pitch movements in the later timeframe, contrary to the hypothesis, and suggesting that he was hypercorrecting in the earlier timeframe. In the early timeframe, virtually no /z/ was produced with voicing, while in the later timeframe, about 50% of /z/ segments were voiced. This suggests that the speaker had created a new category for this sound over time. Implications for theories of L2 learning are discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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26 pages, 4699 KiB  
Article
Perception and Production of Sentence Types by Inuktitut-English Bilinguals
by Laura Colantoni, Gabrielle Klassen, Matthew Patience, Malina Radu and Olga Tararova
Languages 2022, 7(3), 193; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030193 - 25 Jul 2022
Viewed by 1843
Abstract
We explore the perception and production of English statements, absolute yes-no questions, and declarative questions by Inuktitut-English sequential bilinguals. Inuktitut does not mark stress, and intonation is used as a cue for phrasing, while statements and questions are morphologically marked by a suffix [...] Read more.
We explore the perception and production of English statements, absolute yes-no questions, and declarative questions by Inuktitut-English sequential bilinguals. Inuktitut does not mark stress, and intonation is used as a cue for phrasing, while statements and questions are morphologically marked by a suffix added to the verbal root. Conversely, English absolute questions are both prosodically and syntactically marked, whereas the difference between statements and declarative questions is prosodic. To determine the degree of crosslinguistic influence (CLI) and whether CLI is more prevalent in tasks that require access to contextual information, bilinguals and controls performed three perception and two production tasks, with varying degrees of context. Results showed that bilinguals did not differ from controls in their perception of low-pass filtered utterances but diverged in contextualized tasks. In production, bilinguals, as opposed to controls, displayed a reduced use of pitch in the first pitch accent. In a discourse-completion task, they also diverged from controls in the number of non-target-like realizations, particularly in declarative question contexts. These findings demonstrate patterns of prosodic and morphosyntactic CLI and highlight the importance of incorporating contextual information in prosodic studies. Moreover, we show that the absence of tonal variations can be transferred in a stable language contact situation. Finally, the results indicate that comprehension may be hindered for this group of bilinguals when sentence type is not redundantly marked. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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18 pages, 5631 KiB  
Article
Sentence Prosody and Register Variation in Arabic
by Sam Hellmuth
Languages 2022, 7(2), 129; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020129 - 24 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1950
Abstract
Diglossia in Arabic differs from bilingualism in functional differentiation and mode of acquisition of the two registers used by all speakers raised in an Arabic-speaking environment. The ‘low’ (L) regional spoken dialect is acquired naturally and used in daily life, but the ‘high’ [...] Read more.
Diglossia in Arabic differs from bilingualism in functional differentiation and mode of acquisition of the two registers used by all speakers raised in an Arabic-speaking environment. The ‘low’ (L) regional spoken dialect is acquired naturally and used in daily life, but the ‘high’ (H) variety, Modern Standard Arabic, is learned and used in formal settings. Register variation between the two ends of this H–L continuum is ubiquitous in everyday interaction, such that authors have proposed distinct intermediate register levels, despite evidence of mixing of H and L features, within and between utterances, at all linguistic levels. The role of sentence prosody in register variation in Arabic is uninvestigated to date. The present study examines three variables (F0 variation, intonational choices and post-lexical utterance-final laryngealization) in 400+ turns at talk produced by one speaker of San’ani Arabic in a 20 min sociolinguistic interview, coded for register on three levels: formal (fusħa), ‘middle’ (wusṭaː) and dialect (ʕaːmijja). The results reveal a picture of key shared features across all register levels, alongside distinct properties which serve to differentiate the registers at each end of the continuum, at least some of which appear to be under the speaker’s control. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Effects of Cross-Language Differences on Bilingual Production and/or Perception of Sentence-Level Intonation)
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