Forschungsprojekte

Cross-linguistic influence in phonology: the case of heritage Icelandic

Funding period: 1 June 2021 – 31 Mar 2024
Principal Investigators: Nicole Dehé (DE 876/4-1) and Christiane Ulbrich (UL 458/2-1)
Research staff: Moritz Jakob, Meike Rommel

Project description: First languages are typically acquired with continuous exposure to one (or more) language(s). This is not true in the same way for speakers of a heritage language (HL). Their first language (L1) attainment frequently does not reach native-like levels, which distinguishes them form monolinguals and most other types of multilinguals. This has implications for theoretical aspects of language representation and development. Especially the area of phonetics and phonology appears to be difficult to capture theoretically. The pronunciation of HL speakers is often described as accented compared to monolinguals, but it also differs from second language (L2) speakers, leaving several research gaps to be addressed in the present project, e.g.: (i) Are phenomena at different phonological levels affected in the same way by dynamic cross-linguistic influences? (ii) To which extent are these effects the same for different types of learners (HL, L2)? To address these questions, we study two selected phenomena at different levels within the phonology of Icelandic: preaspiration at the (sub)segmental level, and word stress at the prosodic (and: lexical) word level in HL, L1 and L2 speakers of Icelandic. Icelandic is particularly well suited because of comparatively few changes in its history and relative lack of regional variation.