عنوان

Language Contact in Puerto Rico: The Case of Hiatus Resolution Strategies in Arabic-Spanish Bilinguals

Number

TL53666

.Language of Text, Soundtrack etc

انگلیسی

Title Proper

Language Contact in Puerto Rico: The Case of Hiatus Resolution Strategies in Arabic-Spanish Bilinguals

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Mohamed, Sherez Renee

Subsequent Statement of Responsibility

González, Carolina

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

The Florida State University

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2020

Text of Note

158 p.

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

The Florida State University

Text preceding or following the note

2020

Text of Note

This dissertation examines the realization of vowel sequences across word boundaries in Arabic-Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals in Puerto Rico, as in the phrase hombre inteligente 'intelligent man'. Spanish and Arabic have different syllable structures, which cause differences in their strategies of resyllabification. The onset is obligatory in Arabic (Abu-Salim, 1982; Broselow, 2017; Watson, 2007), while this is not the case in Spanish (Hualde, 2014). In Arabic then, resyllabification occurs to accommodate syllable weight and comply with the permitted types of syllables in the language. Conversely, in Spanish vowel sequences may be realized as hiatus, diphthongized, or coalesced. In addition, one vowel may be elided, and infrequently, epenthesis can occur. Given these linguistic differences between Arabic and Spanish, the aim of the present study was to examine how Arabic-Spanish bilinguals are affected by the linguistic constraints of Arabic when resyllabifying vowel sequences across word boundaries in Spanish. Linguistic factors including stress, vowel height, and word length, among others, were examined. Additionally, this study aimed to investigate how the social factors language dominance, age of acquisition, gender and age affect these realizations. In order to examine vowel sequences across word boundaries, a reading task and sociolinguistic interviews were used. Bilingual participants also completed the Bilingual Language Profile questionnaire in Spanish (Birdsong, Gertken & Amengual, 2012) to elicit information on language dominance, proficiency, age of acquisition, and language use. The participants in the reading task were divided among 10 monolinguals and 14 bilinguals, with a gender distribution of nine women (six monolingual, three bilingual) and 15 men (four monolingual, 11 bilingual); age range 19-65 years. The participants for the sociolinguistic interviews consisted of four monolingual men and 11 bilingual men; age range 19-55 years. All participants had at least an Associate's degree. A total of 1921 tokens were produced in the reading task and 427 tokens were produced in the sociolinguistic interviews. The findings of the present study showed that Arabic-Spanish bilinguals and Spanish monolinguals differed in their realization of vowel sequences. Bilinguals employed a strategy of glottal epenthesis more frequently than their monolingual counterparts in both tasks, although this was not significant. However, the results also showed that bilinguals diphthongized sequences significantly more than monolinguals. Within the bilingual group, those who were dominant in Arabic glottalized significantly more than Spanish-dominant bilinguals in both tasks. However, an examination of the sociolinguistic interviews showed that Spanish-dominant bilinguals favored more reduced forms (diphthongization, elision, coalescence). In both tasks, monolinguals' and bilinguals' realizations were significantly impacted by the linguistic factors stress and vowel height. Sequences where one of the vowels was a low or mid vowel were conducive to realizations of vowel retention (i.e., glottalization, hiatus, or two homogeneous vowels), while sequences containing a high or low vowel were conducive to reduction (diphthongization, elision, coalescence). When one of the two vowels in contact was stressed, particularly the second vowel of the sequence, reduction was less likely. These findings show that language dominance strongly impacts how vowel sequences are realized in Arabic-Spanish bilinguals. Language dominance appeared to be a stronger indication of phonetic outcomes than age of acquisition in these bilinguals. Lastly, although infrequently, the results also showed that monolinguals of Puerto Rican Spanish utilize glottal epenthesis between vowels as a stratey for hiatus resolution. The findings suggest that there are universal linguistic conditions that favor glottalization, in addition to factors associated with bilingualism, such as language dominance and the onset of bilingualism.

Subject Term

Acoustics

Subject Term

Language

Subject Term

Linguistics

Mohamed, Sherez Renee

González, Carolina

The Florida State University

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y