تويت
Vowel reduction in Israeli Heritage Russian
Article · August 2016
Abstract
This study examines vowel reduction patterns of Israeli Heritage Russian speakers (IHRs). The results provide insights into the competing effects on the phonological grammar of Heritage speakers in general, and IHRs in a Hebrew-dominant environment in particular. Prosodically-constrained stress-related Russian vowel reduction is well documented (e.g. Jakobson 1929, Crosswhite 1999, Barnes 2002, Padgett 2004) as displaying a three-way pattern: underlying /o/ and /a/ surface as [o] and [a] in stressed syllables, as [a] in the first pretonic syllable, and as [ə] in other unstressed syllables. In Modern Hebrew, on the other hand, vowel reduction is primarily quantitative (Maymon 2001, Cohen&Silber-Varod in progress), as stressed and unstressed vowels differ in length, but not in quality. We conduct a production experiment to determine the patterns of vowel reduction in the Russian of IHRs. Twenty IHRs aged 20-30 (Russian speaking parents from Greater Moscow, exposure to Hebrew is preschool) are exposed to auditory stimuli (base forms of real and nonce words with stressed /o/) and required to produce the forms, and two additional forms (three altogether): a. Stressed position (repetition); e.g. stress-final bare stem form – most ‘bridge sg.’ b. Pretonic position; e.g. same stem with monosyllabic stress-attracting suffix – most- ̍ɨ ‘bridge pl.’ c. Other unstressed position; e.g. same stem with disyllabic stress-attracting suffix – most-o ̍voj ‘of-bridge adj.’. The quantity (length) of /o/ and its quality (F1, F2) are analysed and compared to a control group of monolingual Russian speakers. A pilot study shows that IHRs reduce unstressed /o/, but do not display the three-way distinction attested in native Russian. The IHRs’ pattern is examined in light of three potential sources: vowel reduction patterns in Russian, vowel reduction patterns in Hebrew, and universal tendencies to reduce vowels in unstressed syllables.
Vowel reduction in Israeli Heritage Russian. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ritage_Russian [accessed Apr 12, 2017].
Article · August 2016
Abstract
This study examines vowel reduction patterns of Israeli Heritage Russian speakers (IHRs). The results provide insights into the competing effects on the phonological grammar of Heritage speakers in general, and IHRs in a Hebrew-dominant environment in particular. Prosodically-constrained stress-related Russian vowel reduction is well documented (e.g. Jakobson 1929, Crosswhite 1999, Barnes 2002, Padgett 2004) as displaying a three-way pattern: underlying /o/ and /a/ surface as [o] and [a] in stressed syllables, as [a] in the first pretonic syllable, and as [ə] in other unstressed syllables. In Modern Hebrew, on the other hand, vowel reduction is primarily quantitative (Maymon 2001, Cohen&Silber-Varod in progress), as stressed and unstressed vowels differ in length, but not in quality. We conduct a production experiment to determine the patterns of vowel reduction in the Russian of IHRs. Twenty IHRs aged 20-30 (Russian speaking parents from Greater Moscow, exposure to Hebrew is preschool) are exposed to auditory stimuli (base forms of real and nonce words with stressed /o/) and required to produce the forms, and two additional forms (three altogether): a. Stressed position (repetition); e.g. stress-final bare stem form – most ‘bridge sg.’ b. Pretonic position; e.g. same stem with monosyllabic stress-attracting suffix – most- ̍ɨ ‘bridge pl.’ c. Other unstressed position; e.g. same stem with disyllabic stress-attracting suffix – most-o ̍voj ‘of-bridge adj.’. The quantity (length) of /o/ and its quality (F1, F2) are analysed and compared to a control group of monolingual Russian speakers. A pilot study shows that IHRs reduce unstressed /o/, but do not display the three-way distinction attested in native Russian. The IHRs’ pattern is examined in light of three potential sources: vowel reduction patterns in Russian, vowel reduction patterns in Hebrew, and universal tendencies to reduce vowels in unstressed syllables.
Vowel reduction in Israeli Heritage Russian. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publica...ritage_Russian [accessed Apr 12, 2017].
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