The acquisition of the Portuguese vowel system by speakers of the Riverplate Spanish variety: a discussion on the bi-directionality of vowel transfer

• Autor(a) principal: Pereyron, Letícia
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Alves, Ubiratã Kickhöfel
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Domínios de Lingu@gem
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/dominiosdelinguagem/article/view/32078
• topic: Aquisição do português brasileiro; Sistema vocálico; Bilíngues espanhol-português; Brazilian Portuguese phonetic acquisition; Vowel system; Portuguese-Spanish bilinguals

This study aims to investigate the vowels produced by L1 Riverplate Spanish speakers of Portuguese (L2) and verify modifications in the vowel space of their L1 due to L2 influences. Data were collected from 10 participants - 5 bilinguals and 5 monolinguals. F1, F2, and duration values were verified in the Spanish (L1) and in the Portuguese (L2) of bilingual speakers, while such values were also verified in the Spanish produced by the monolingual participants (control group). Results show that, in terms of the front-back dimension, bilingual participants do not differ in mid-low and mid-high vowel production in Portuguese. However, it was found that their production of mid-high vowels is located at a higher position in the acoustic space, as if the system were being prepared for mid-low vowel formation. This pattern was verified in both their L2 and L1. This tendency was not found in the productions of monolinguals. As for vowel duration, bilinguals show longer vowels in the L2 than in their L1 and their vowels in Spanish are longer than those produced by monolinguals. These results, in light of a conception of language as a Complex Adaptive System (DE BOT et al., 2013), suggests a multidirectionality in terms of language transfer.