Open AccessSpit or sbit? ST-type consonant clusters in the speech of Polish learners of English
Author(s) -
Geoffrey Schwartz
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
studia linguistica universatitatis cracoviensis/studia linguistica universitatis iagellonicae cracoviensis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.142
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 2083-4624
pISSN - 1897-1059
DOI - 10.4467/20834624sl.21.015.14743
Subject(s) - consonant cluster , linguistics , pronunciation , stop consonant , consonant , context (archaeology) , psychology , voice onset time , voice , speech recognition , history , vowel , computer science , philosophy , archaeology
This paper presents two small-scale acoustic phonetic studies investigating the pronunciation of sibilant-stop (ST) consonant clusters in Polish, and in the L2 speech of L1 Polish learners of English. In English, aspiration of fortis stops is not attested in the post-/s/ context. Rather, short-lag voice onset time (VOT) measures are observed in L1 English in post-/s/ stop consonants, a phonetic weakening that renders them phonetically similar in terms of VOT to lenis stops in initial position. In Polish, both voiced and voiceless stops may appear after sibilant fricatives. The acoustic results suggest that (1) L1 Polish does not weaken its stops in ST clusters, and (2) that more L1 Polish speakers exhibit some weakening in their L2 English clusters as a function of proficiency, but do not produce native-like VOTs in ST sequences. Implications of these findings for L2 speech research and the phonological status of ST clusters are discussed.