Hannah Pick

Although there has been considerable investigation of language transfer, interlanguage, and accommodation in the study of second language acquisition, the effect of language transfer from second language to first is examined much less frequently. This study addresses the effects of English on the Spanish of learners of English by investigating the retroflex variant of the variable /r/ in the speech of first-generation Spanish speakers from Guanajuato, Mexico. The subjects work in a Mexican restaurant in Wake Forest, North Carolina, which caters largely to English-speakers. Several previous studies of the retroflex variant in language contact situations suggest that it is a borrowed phonetic variant from American English (Cassano 1973; 1977; Ramos-Pellicia 2007; Sánchez 1973). While these studies focused on the extended effects of language contact on the variable /r/, this study documents the phenomenon in recent immigrants to determine if this might constitute an earlier-order effect or even an innovation within Spanish phonology. The variants of /r/ are impressionistically categorized in terms of three phonetic variants of /r/ in the informal speech of six participants, trilled /r/, flapped /r/, and retroflex /r/ based on semi-structured interviews with the subjects, and correlated with linguistic and sociolinguistic variables such as word position (syllable final, word internal, or word final), preceding segment (consonant, vowel or pause), following segment (consonant, vowel, or pause), word type (noun, verb or other), speaker's age, length of time in the United States, length of time working at the Mexican restaurant in Wake Forest, and age at the time of immigration. The results support the hypothesis that the retroflex variant has entered the speech of these Mexican speakers due to contact with American English, and suggest that “reverse accommodation” may sometimes be a process that takes place relatively early in the second language-learning process.
Work Cited
Cassano, Paul Vincent. 1977. Problems in language borrowing and lending exemplified by American Spanish phonology. Orbis 36:1, 149-163. Orbis Books.
Cassano, Paul Vincent. 1973. The influence of American English on the phonology of American Spanish. Orbis 22:1, 201-214. Orbis Books.
Ramos-Pellicia, Michelle F. 2007. Lorain Puerto Rican Spanish and 'r' in Three Generations. In Selected Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics, ed. Jonathan Holmquist, Augusto Lorenzino, and Lotfi Sayahi, 53-60. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Sánchez, Rosaura. 1973. Nuestra circunstancia lingüística. Voices. Readings from El Grito. A Journal of Mexican American Thought 1967-1973, 420-449 Berkeley: Quinto Sol Publications.