Yao, Y. and Chang, C. B. (2015) 'On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese.' Language, 92 (2). pp. 433-467.
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Abstract
This study investigated 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 showed that speaker age, language mode (monolingual Shanghainese vs. bilingual Shanghainese-Mandarin), and crosslinguistic phonological similarity all influenced 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.
| Item Type: | Journal Article |
|---|---|
| SOAS Departments & Centres: | Legacy Departments > Faculty of Languages and Cultures > Department of Linguistics |
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PI Oriental languages and literatures P Language and Literature > PL Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania |
| ISSN: | 00978507 |
| DOI (Digital Object Identifier): | https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0031 |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Jul 2015 10:50 |
| URI: | https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/id/eprint/20245 |
| Related URLs: |
https://www.lin ... 8_92.2Yao_2.pdf
https://muse.jh ... icle/619543/pdf (Publisher URL) |
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