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Prosody and Immigration
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Prosody and Immigration

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 6666

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Rajiv Rao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Language Sciences Program, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Interests: phonetics; phonology; bilingualism; language acquisition; language contact

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research on minority immigrant languages has gained significant traction in the last decade-plus, primarily due to a significant body of research on heritage languages (e.g., Montrul, 2015; Polinsky, 2018; Polinsky & Montrul, 2021; among many others). Developments in the phonetics and phonology of heritage languages have lagged behind those in other linguistic areas, but recent years have seen significant growth in work on sound systems as well (see, e.g., Chang, 2021; Rao, 2016, in press), especially in North America, thanks in large part to research on Spanish in the US (for an overview, see Rao, 2019) and studies based on the Heritage Language Variation and Change Corpus in Toronto (Nagy, 2011). However, within the fields of heritage (and, in general, minority immigrant language) phonetics and phonology, prosody remains relatively understudied, and within the realm of immigrant language prosody, we still know very little about issues such as cross-generational change, longitudinal outcomes, child versus adolescent versus adult data, older first-generation immigrants who have resided in the host country for multiple decades versus monolingual homeland speakers, the role of source input varieties, the influence of a wide range of social (level of education, age, gender, rural versus urban settings, etc.) and affective (e.g., attitudes, emotions, motivation) variables, speech rhythm, intonation across a variety of pragmatic contexts, variation in lexical tone, speakers of such languages outside of North America, and the effects of minority language prosody on local majority varieties (by no means is this an exhaustive list).

The goal of this Special Issue is to fill existing holes in the literature on prosody by addressing the topics listed above (among other possibilities), while highlighting the need for increased comparisons between first-generation immigrants and homeland speakers, as well as a wider range of coverage of languages and geographies in general (e.g., Calhoun, 2015 versus Calhoun et al., in press for data based in Oceania). Finally, this special issue complements other ones hosted by Languages:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/special_issues/Immigrant_Refugee_Languagees
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/languages/special_issues/multilingualism_migrant

Given that prosody is a key component of human communication (e.g., Gussenhoven & Chen, 2020) and that language and cultural contact caused by international movement are pervasive in many regions of the world, learning more about the interaction of these two concepts is important, not only to expand on the recent growth in heritage language sound systems, but also to gain a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of prosodic variation (for a recent contribution to this area, see Armstrong et al., 2022).

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 Editor (Rajiv Rao; r[email protected]) or to the Languages Editorial Office ([email protected]). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editor for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Selected References

Armstrong, M., Breen, M, Gooden, S., Levon, E., & Yu, K. (2022). Sociolectal and dialectal variation in prosody (introduction to special issue). Language and Speech, 65(4), 783–790.

Calhoun, S. (2015). The interaction of prosody and syntax in Samoan focus marking. Lingua, 165, 205–229.

Calhoun, S., Seals, C., Alefosio, T., & Faamanatu-Eteuati, N. (In press). Phrasal Prosody of Heritage Speakers of Samoan in Aotearoa New Zealand. In R. Rao (Ed.), The phonetics and phonology of heritage languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Chang, C. (2021). Phonetics and phonology of heritage languages. In S. Montrul & M. Polinsky, The Cambridge handbook of heritage languages and linguistics (pp. 581-612). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gussenhoven, C., & Chen, A. (2021). The Oxford handbook of language prosody. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Montrul, S. (2015). The acquisition of heritage languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Montrul, S., & Polinsky, M. (2021). The Cambridge handbook of heritage languages and linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nagy, N. (2011). A multilingual corpus to explore variation in language contact situations. Rassegna Italiana Di Linguistica Applicata, 43(1/2), 65–84.

Polinsky, M. (2018). Heritage languages and their speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rao, R. (2016). Introduction to special issue on heritage phonetics and phonology. Heritage Language Journal, 13(2), i–ii.

Rao, R. (2019). The phonological system of adult heritage speakers of Spanish in the United States. In S. Colina & F. Martínez-Gil, The Routledge handbook of Spanish phonology (pp. 439–452). London/New York: Routledge.

Rao, R. (Ed.). (In press). The phonetics and phonology of heritage languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tentative completion schedule:

  • Abstract submission deadline: May 15, 2023
  • Notification of abstract acceptance: May 31, 2023
  • Full manuscript deadline: August 31, 2023

Prof. Dr. Rajiv Rao
Guest Editor

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

  • prosody
  • intonation
  • stress
  • rhythm
  • immigration
  • language contact
  • variation
  • social factors

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 13375 KiB  
Article
Portuguese and German Intonation Contours in a Two-Way Immersion School
by Catalina Torres
Languages 2024, 9(2), 54; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9020054 - 1 Feb 2024
Viewed by 1133
Abstract
This study investigates the intonation contours of neutral yes–no interrogatives produced by simultaneous bilingual children in their two native languages. Previous studies have shown prosodic transfer from one language to another, either from the dominant into the non-dominant language or vice versa, but [...] Read more.
This study investigates the intonation contours of neutral yes–no interrogatives produced by simultaneous bilingual children in their two native languages. Previous studies have shown prosodic transfer from one language to another, either from the dominant into the non-dominant language or vice versa, but little is known about what specifically triggers this behaviour. This study explores how bilingual children make use of phonetic–phonological resources while interacting with peers. Three child speakers of German (ambient language) and Portuguese (heritage language) were recorded as they performed a modified version of a map task. Natural and spontaneous data were collected and the speech was analysed. The results indicate that to some degree, bilingual children produce all intonational contours specific to their language variety. When speaking German, they produced the syntax and contour consistent with the structure of yes–no interrogatives in German. When speaking Portuguese, the children displayed variation in their choice of tune, depending on the variety of Portuguese and the language proficiency of their interlocutor. This behaviour is interpreted as prosodic convergence resulting from the high variability of prosodic structures in the different varieties of Portuguese present in the classroom. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prosody and Immigration)
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24 pages, 2633 KiB  
Article
Intonational Features of Spontaneous Narrations in Monolingual and Heritage Russian in the U.S.—An Exploration of the RUEG Corpus
by Sabine Zerbian, Yulia Zuban and Martin Klotz
Languages 2024, 9(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9010002 - 19 Dec 2023
Viewed by 1368
Abstract
This article presents RuPro, a new corpus resource of prosodically annotated speech by Russian heritage speakers in the U.S. and monolingually raised Russian speakers. The corpus contains data elicited in formal and informal communicative situations, by male/female and adolescent/adult speakers. The resource is [...] Read more.
This article presents RuPro, a new corpus resource of prosodically annotated speech by Russian heritage speakers in the U.S. and monolingually raised Russian speakers. The corpus contains data elicited in formal and informal communicative situations, by male/female and adolescent/adult speakers. The resource is presented with its architecture and annotation, and it is shown how it is used for the analysis of intonational features of spontaneous mono- and bilingual Russian speech. The analyses investigate the length of intonation phrases, types and number of pitch accents, and boundary tones. It emerges that the speaker groups do not differ in the inventory of pitch accents and boundary tones or in the relative frequency of these tonal events. However, they do differ in the length of intonation phrases (IPs), with heritage speakers showing shorter IPs also in the informal communicative situation. Both groups also differ concerning the number of pitch accents used on content words, with heritage speakers using more pitch accents than monolingually raised speakers. The results are discussed with respect to register differentiation and differences in prosodic density across both speaker groups. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prosody and Immigration)
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12 pages, 722 KiB  
Article
Production of Acoustic Correlates of Stress by L2 Spanish-Speaking Immigrants to Spain
by Timothy L. Face
Languages 2023, 8(4), 258; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040258 - 30 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1381
Abstract
Little work has examined the L2 acquisition of Spanish stress, and especially the production of its acoustic correlates, and the work that has is largely limited to inexperienced learners. This study examines the production of stress by L1 English/L2 Spanish speakers who are [...] Read more.
Little work has examined the L2 acquisition of Spanish stress, and especially the production of its acoustic correlates, and the work that has is largely limited to inexperienced learners. This study examines the production of stress by L1 English/L2 Spanish speakers who are highly experienced with their L2, having lived much of their adult lives as immigrants in Spain. Data were collected from the reading of a short story, an extended reading with a plot was provided so that participants would not be focused on their pronunciation, thus producing speech closer to spontaneous speech while still allowing for control over what they produced. Intensity, duration, pitch and deaccenting were examined and the results from the L2 learners were compared to a control group of native speakers from Spain who performed the same task. While only one L2 learner’s stress production could be classified as completely native-like, as a group, their stress production approximated native speaker norms to a greater degree than has been found for most other aspects of L2 Spanish pronunciation in previous research. Nonetheless, L2 learners seemed to transfer duration patterns from their L1 into their L2 Spanish and also deaccented stressed syllables nearly twice as often as native speakers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prosody and Immigration)
15 pages, 4369 KiB  
Article
The Functions of Prosody in Action Formation in Australian Greek Talk-in-Interaction
by Angeliki Alvanoudi
Languages 2023, 8(4), 256; https://doi.org/10.3390/languages8040256 - 27 Oct 2023
Viewed by 1803
Abstract
This study takes us to the Greek diasporic community in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia. The data analyzed derive from audio-recorded conversations with first-generation Greek immigrants collected during fieldwork in 2013. Drawing on interactional linguistics and contact linguistics, this paper analyzes the prosody [...] Read more.
This study takes us to the Greek diasporic community in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia. The data analyzed derive from audio-recorded conversations with first-generation Greek immigrants collected during fieldwork in 2013. Drawing on interactional linguistics and contact linguistics, this paper analyzes the prosody of bilingual discourse markers and bilingual repetition in Australian Greek talk-in-interaction. It is shown that the prosodic features of code switches, namely pitch, intensity and duration, shape action formation and ascription. In the case of bilingual discourse markers, pitch serves as a contextualization cue that conveys the speaker’s stance and frames the different functions of the code-switched items. In bilingual repetition, speakers mobilize duration and intensity to prosodically differentiate the first iteration delivered in English from the second iteration delivered in Greek and, thus, frame the interpretation of the code switch as participant-related. This study sheds light on the pragmatic aspects of the phonetics of the Greek variety spoken in Cairns, and demonstrates that prosody shapes the functions of language contact-induced speech behavior in specific interactional contexts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prosody and Immigration)
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