Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English

Chloé Diskin-Holdaway; Weicong Li; Paola Escudero

Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English

Chloé Diskin-Holdaway
, Weicong Li
, Paola Escudero

MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour & Development

University of Melbourne

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference Paper › Conference Paper › peer-review

Abstract

We investigate phonetic variation in the English plosives /p t k/ of two groups of four-year-olds residing in Sydney, Australia: five Spanish-English bilinguals, and four Australian English monolinguals. Both groups are also compared with a monolingual adult. Nine categories of /p t k/ are identified across 901 tokens. No significant differences were found across groups, but /t/ exhibited the most variation, including variants such as a word-initial dentalized /t/, found only among the bilingual speakers. Results suggest that simultaneous bilingual children resemble monolinguals in their English plosives, with some minimal influence from their other language.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the Nineteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 3–5 December 2024, Melbourne, Australia
Editors	Olga Maxwell, Rikke Bundgaard-Nielsen
Place of Publication	Canberra, A.C.T.
Publisher	Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association
Pages	107-111
Number of pages	5
Publication status	Published - Dec 2024
Event	Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology - University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Duration: 3 Dec 2024 → 5 Dec 2024 Conference number: 19th

Conference

Conference	Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Melbourne
Period	3/12/24 → 5/12/24

Cite this

Diskin-Holdaway, C., Li, W., & Escudero, P. (2024). Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English. In O. Maxwell, & R. Bundgaard-Nielsen (Eds.), Proceedings of the Nineteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 3–5 December 2024, Melbourne, Australia (pp. 107-111). Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association.

Diskin-Holdaway, Chloé ; Li, Weicong ; Escudero, Paola. / Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English. Proceedings of the Nineteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 3–5 December 2024, Melbourne, Australia. editor / Olga Maxwell ; Rikke Bundgaard-Nielsen. Canberra, A.C.T. : Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association, 2024. pp. 107-111

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title = "Bilingual preschoolers{\textquoteright} phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English",

abstract = "We investigate phonetic variation in the English plosives /p t k/ of two groups of four-year-olds residing in Sydney, Australia: five Spanish-English bilinguals, and four Australian English monolinguals. Both groups are also compared with a monolingual adult. Nine categories of /p t k/ are identified across 901 tokens. No significant differences were found across groups, but /t/ exhibited the most variation, including variants such as a word-initial dentalized /t/, found only among the bilingual speakers. Results suggest that simultaneous bilingual children resemble monolinguals in their English plosives, with some minimal influence from their other language.",

author = "Chlo{\'e} Diskin-Holdaway and Weicong Li and Paola Escudero",

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editor = "Olga Maxwell and Rikke Bundgaard-Nielsen",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the Nineteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 3–5 December 2024, Melbourne, Australia",

publisher = "Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association",

note = "Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology ; Conference date: 03-12-2024 Through 05-12-2024",

}

Diskin-Holdaway, C, Li, W & Escudero, P 2024, Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English. in O Maxwell & R Bundgaard-Nielsen (eds), Proceedings of the Nineteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 3–5 December 2024, Melbourne, Australia. Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association, Canberra, A.C.T., pp. 107-111, Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology , Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3/12/24.

Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English. / Diskin-Holdaway, Chloé; Li, Weicong; Escudero, Paola.
Proceedings of the Nineteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 3–5 December 2024, Melbourne, Australia. ed. / Olga Maxwell; Rikke Bundgaard-Nielsen. Canberra, A.C.T.: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association, 2024. p. 107-111.

Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference Paper › Conference Paper › peer-review

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T1 - Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English

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N1 - Conference code: 19th

PY - 2024/12

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N2 - We investigate phonetic variation in the English plosives /p t k/ of two groups of four-year-olds residing in Sydney, Australia: five Spanish-English bilinguals, and four Australian English monolinguals. Both groups are also compared with a monolingual adult. Nine categories of /p t k/ are identified across 901 tokens. No significant differences were found across groups, but /t/ exhibited the most variation, including variants such as a word-initial dentalized /t/, found only among the bilingual speakers. Results suggest that simultaneous bilingual children resemble monolinguals in their English plosives, with some minimal influence from their other language.

AB - We investigate phonetic variation in the English plosives /p t k/ of two groups of four-year-olds residing in Sydney, Australia: five Spanish-English bilinguals, and four Australian English monolinguals. Both groups are also compared with a monolingual adult. Nine categories of /p t k/ are identified across 901 tokens. No significant differences were found across groups, but /t/ exhibited the most variation, including variants such as a word-initial dentalized /t/, found only among the bilingual speakers. Results suggest that simultaneous bilingual children resemble monolinguals in their English plosives, with some minimal influence from their other language.

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Diskin-Holdaway C, Li W, Escudero P. Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English. In Maxwell O, Bundgaard-Nielsen R, editors, Proceedings of the Nineteenth Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology, 3–5 December 2024, Melbourne, Australia. Canberra, A.C.T.: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association. 2024. p. 107-111

Bilingual preschoolers’ phonetic variation keeps up with monolingual peers: The case of voiceless plosives in Australian English

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