Cover not available

Article published In: Multilingualism and Language Contact in Asia-Pacific
Edited by Shobha Satyanath
[Asia-Pacific Language Variation 11:1/2] 2025
► pp. 41–71

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Stability in the face of contact

/u/ in (Heritage) Tagalog

ORCiD logo with link | University of Toronto
Published online: 1 December 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.25003.umb
Abstract
The sociolinguistic realities of multilingualism raise questions about the linguistic outcomes of language contact. The present study addresses this issue in the context of heritage languages. It investigates whether the relative backness of /u/ in Heritage Tagalog exhibits crosslinguistic influence from English. Over 1600 tokens of Tagalog /u/ were extracted from spontaneous speech of two generations of heritage speakers in Toronto and two groups of age-matched homeland speakers in Manila. A multivariate analysis of linguistic and social factors shows lack of an apparent time change in Toronto and in Manila: /u/ is realized in the back periphery of the vowel space; though some degree of fronting in both varieties is evident, this is attributable to coarticulation and speech rate. The study demonstrates that Tagalog /u/ in Toronto shares the same variable system as in Manila, and properties of the linguistic system can remain stable in the face of contact.
Abstract (Tagalog)
Ang mga sosyolingguwistikong realidad ng multilingguwalismo ay nagdadala ng mga tanong tungkol sa mga resulta ng kontak ng mga wika. Tinatalakay ng pag-aaral na ito ang isyung ito sa konteksto ng mga heritage language. Sinisiyasat nito kung ang relatibong pagkalikod ng /u/ sa Heritage Tagalog ay nagpapamalas ng crosslinguistic na impluwensiya mula sa Ingles. Higit sa 1600 na mga token ng Tagalog /u/ ang kinuha mula sa di-pinaghandaang pananalita ng dalawang henerasyon ng mga heritage na mananalita sa Toronto at ng dalawang pangkat ng mga magkakasing-edad na homeland na mananalita sa Maynila. Ipinapakita ng multivariate na pagsusuri ng mga lingguwistiko at panlipunang salik ang kawalan ng apparent time change sa Toronto at sa Maynila: ang /u/ ay binibigkas sa likurang panig ng vowel space; bagama’t mayroong ilang antas ng paghaharap sa parehong barayti, ito ay maiuugnay sa coarticulation at bilis ng pagsasalita. Ipinapamalas ng pag-aaral na ito na ang /u/ ng Tagalog sa Toronto ay kapwa may variable na sistemang tulad ng sa Maynila, at maaaring manatiling matatag sa harap ng kontak ang mga katangian ng sistemang lingguwistiko.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Heritage languages and their speakers
    • 1.2The high back rounded vowel as a conflict site
      • 1.2.1Tagalog /u/
      • 1.2.2Canadian English /uw/
      • 1.2.3HL research on /u/
    • 1.3The present study
  • 2.Methods
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Data processing
    • 2.3Methods of analysis
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion
    • 4.1Stable variation
    • 4.2Absence of CLI
    • 4.3Separate category formation and maintenance among HSs
    • 4.4Manila HOMSs
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (96)
References
Adank, Patti, Smits, Roel, & van Hout, Roeland (2004). A comparison of vowel normalization procedures for language variation research. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 116(5), 3099–3107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Amengual, Mark (2016). Acoustic correlates of the Spanish tap-trill contrast: Heritage and L2 Spanish speakers. Heritage Language Journal, 13(2), 88–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Antoniou, Mark, Best, Catherine T., Tyler, Michael D., & Kroos, Christian (2010). Language context elicits native-like stop voicing in early bilinguals’ productions in both L1 and L2. Journal of Phonetics, 38(4), 640–653. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Au, Terry Kit-fong, Knightly, Leah M., Jun, Sun-Ah, & Oh, Janet S. (2002). Overhearing a language during childhood. Psychological Science, 13(3), 238–243. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bates, Douglas, Mächler, Martin, Bolker, Ben, & Walker, Steve (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benmamoun, Elabbas, Montrul, Silvina, & Polinsky, Maria (2013). Heritage languages and their speakers: Opportunities and challenges for linguistics. Theoretical Linguistics, 39(3–4), 129–181. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul, & Weenink, David (2021). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer. Retrieved on 20 June 2021, from [URL]
Borlongan, Ariane M. (Ed.). (2022). Philippine English: Development, structure, and sociology of English in the Philippines. New York, NY: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borlongan, Ariane Macalinga (2016). Relocating Philippine English in Schneider’s dynamic model. Asian Englishes, 18(3), 232–241. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bullock, Barbara E., & Gerfen, Chip (2004). Frenchville French: A case study in phonological attrition. International Journal of Bilingualism, 8(3), 303–320. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, Charles B. (2016). Bilingual perceptual benefits of experience with a heritage language. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19(4), 791–809. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, Charles B., Yao, Yao, Haynes, Erin F., & Rhodes, Russell (2011). Production of phonetic and phonological contrast by heritage speakers of Mandarin. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 129(6), 3964–3980. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheng, Andrew (2021). Maintenance of phonetic and phonological distance in the English and Korean back vowel contours of heritage bilinguals. Journal of Phonetics, 891, 101109. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cummings Ruiz, Laura D. (2019). North midland /u/-fronting and its effect on heritage speakers of Spanish. In Sasha Calhoun, Paola Escudero, Marija Tabain, & Paul Warren (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (pp. 1099–1103). Canberra: Australian Speech Science and Technology Association. [URL]
de Leeuw, Esther (2019). Phonetic Attrition. In Monika S. Schmid & Barbara Köpke (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language attrition (pp. 203–217). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Leeuw, Esther, Schmid, Monika S., & Mennen, Ineke (2010). The effects of contact on native language pronunciation in an L2 migrant setting. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 13(1), 33–40. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Delos Reyes, Jevalene, Santiago, Paul Julian, Tadena, Danielle, & Zubiri, Louward Allen (2009). Acoustic characteristics of the Filipino vowel space. Proceedings of the 6th National Natural Language Processing Research Symposium, 7–11.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Rosario Martinez, Helios (2015). phia: Post-hoc interaction analysis. Retrieved on 6 April 2023, from [URL]
Eberhard, David M., Simons, Gary F., & Fennig, Charles D. (Eds.). (2025). Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. [URL]
Flege, James E. (2007). Language contact in bilingualism: Phonetic system interactions. In Jennifer Cole & José Ignacio Hualde (Eds.), Laboratory Phonology 91 (pp. 353–381). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, James Emil (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In Winifred Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp. 233–277). Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flege, James Emil, & Bohn, Ocke-Schwen (2021). The revised speech learning model (SLM-r). In Ratree Wayland (Ed.), Second language speech learning (pp. 3–83). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flemming, Edward (2011). The grammar of coarticulation. In Mohamed Embarki & Christelle Dodane (Eds.), La coarticulation: Des indices à la representation (pp. 189–211). Paris: L’Harmattan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flores, Cristina, & Rato, Anabela (2016). Global accent in the Portuguese speech of heritage returnees. Heritage Language Journal, 13(2), 161–183. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fourakis, Marios (1991). Tempo, stress, and vowel reduction in American English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 90(4), 1816–1827. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fridland, Valerie, & Bartlett, Kathy (2006). The social and linguistic conditioning of back vowel fronting across ethnic groups in Memphis, Tennessee. English Language and Linguistics, 10(1), 1–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Godson, Linda (2004). Vowel production in the speech of Western Armenian heritage speakers. Heritage Language Journal, 2(1), 45–70. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Andrew (1970). Acoustic correlates of accent, rhythm, and intonation in Tagalog. Phonetica, 22(1), 11–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Government of Canada (1991). Canadian Heritage Languages Institute Act. Retrieved on 29 April 2023, from [URL]
Harrington, Jonathan (2007). Evidence for a relationship between synchronic variability and diachronic change in the Queen’s annual Christmas broadcasts. In Jennifer Cole & José Ignacio Hualde (Eds.), Laboratory Phonology 91 (pp. 125–144). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hillenbrand, James M., Clark, Michael J., & Nearey, Terrance M. (2001). Effects of consonant environment on vowel formant patterns. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 109(2), 748–763. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hoffman, Michol F. (2016). “Back to front”: The role of ethnicity in back vowel fronting in Toronto English. Paper presented at the New Ways of Analyzing Variation 45, Simon Fraser University. [URL]
Hoffman, Michol F., & Walker, James A. (2010). Ethnolects and the city: Ethnic orientation and linguistic variation in Toronto English. Language Variation and Change, 22(1), 37–67. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Intlekofer, Darlene G. (2012). Tagalog /u/-lowering: An instrumental study of spontaneous speech. Unpublished manuscript, CUNY Graduate Center. [URL]
Jarvis, Scott, & Pavlenko, Aneta (2008). Crosslinguistic influence in language and cognition. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kachru, Braj B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle. In Randolph Quirk & Henry G. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world: Teaching and learning the language and literatures (pp. 11–30). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kang, Yoonjung, George, Sneha, & Soo, Rachel (2016). Cross-language influence in the stop voicing contrast in Heritage Tagalog. Heritage Language Journal, 13(2), 184–218. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kehoe, Margaret, & Havy, Mélanie (2019). Bilingual phonological acquisition: The influence of language-internal, language-external, and lexical factors. Journal of Child Language, 46(2), 292–333. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knightly, Leah M., Jun, Sun-Ah, Oh, Janet S., & Au, Terry Kit-fong (2003). Production benefits of childhood overhearing. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 114(1), 465–474. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kupisch, Tanja, Barton, Dagmar, Hailer, Katja, Klaschik, Ewgenia, Stangen, Ilse, Lein, Tatjana, & van de Weijer, Joost (2014). Foreign accent in adult simultaneous bilinguals. Heritage Language Journal, 11(2), 123–150. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kupisch, Tanja, & Rothman, Jason (2018). Terminology matters! Why difference is not incompleteness and how early child bilinguals are heritage speakers. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(5), 564–582. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kuznetsova, Alexandra, Brockhoff, Per B., & Christensen, Rune H. B. (2017). lmerTest Package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software, 82(13), 1–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William (1984). Field methods of the project on linguistic change and variation. In John Baugh & Joel Sherzer (Eds.), Language in use: Readings in sociolinguistics (pp. 28–53). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William, Ash, Sharon, & Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, phonology and sound change. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William, Rosenfelder, Ingrid, & Fruehwald, Josef (2013). One hundred years of sound change in Philadelphia: Linear incrementation, reversal, and reanalysis. Language, 89(1), 30–65. [URL]
Lein, Tatjana, Kupisch, Tanja, & van de Weijer, Joost (2016). Voice onset time and global foreign accent in German–French simultaneous bilinguals during adulthood. International Journal of Bilingualism, 20(6), 732–749. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lesho, Marivic (2013). The sociophonetics and phonology of the Cavite Chabacano vowel system. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University.
(2018). Philippine English (Metro Manila acrolect). Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 48(3), 357–370. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lobanov, Boris M. (1971). Classification of Russian vowels spoken by different speakers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 49(2B), 606–608. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mahalanobis, Prasanta Chandra (1936). On the generalized distance in statistics. Proceedings of the National Institute of Sciences of India, 2(1), 49–55.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martin, Isabel Pefianco (2014). English language teaching in the Philippines. World Englishes, 33(4), 472–485. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayr, Robert, López-Bueno, Laura, Vázquez Fernández, Martín, & Tomé Lourido, Gisela (2019). The role of early experience and continued language use in bilingual speech production: A study of Galician and Spanish mid vowels by Galician-Spanish bilinguals. Journal of Phonetics, 721, 1–16. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayr, Robert, & Siddika, Aysha (2018). Inter-generational transmission in a minority language setting: Stop consonant production by Bangladeshi heritage children and adults. International Journal of Bilingualism, 22(3), 255–284. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McAuliffe, Michael, Socolof, Michaela, Mihuc, Sarah, Wagner, Michael, & Sonderegger, Morgan (2017). Montreal Forced Aligner: Trainable text-speech alignment using Kaldi. In Proceedings of the 18th Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (pp. 498–502). Stockholm, Sweden: International Speech Communication Association. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCloy, Daniel (2016). phonR: Tools for phoneticians and phonologists [Computer software]. Retrieved on 6 April 2023, from [URL]
McFarland, Curtis D. (2004). The Philippine language situation. World Englishes, 23(1), 59–75. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Montrul, Silvina (2012). Bilingualism and the Heritage language speaker. In Tej K. Bhatia & William C. Ritchie (Eds.), The handbook of bilingualism and multilingualism (pp. 168–189). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nagy, Naomi (2011). A multilingual corpus to explore variation in language contact situations. Rassegna Italiana di Linguistica Applicata, 43(1–2), 65–84. [URL]
(2015). A sociolinguistic view of null subjects and VOT in Toronto heritage languages. Lingua, 1641, 309–327. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). Heritage languages in Canada. In Maria Polinsky & Silvina Montrul (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of heritage languages and linguistics (pp. 178–204). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2024). Heritage languages: Extending variationist approaches. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nagy, Naomi, & Kochetov, Alexei (2013). Voice onset time across the generations. In Peter Siemund, Ingrid Gogolin, Monika Edith Schulz, & Julia Davydova (Eds.), Multilingualism and language diversity in urban areas: Acquisition, identities, space, education (pp. 19–38). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nodari, Rosalba, Celata, Chiara, & Nagy, Naomi (2019). Socio-indexical phonetic features in the heritage language context: Voiceless stop aspiration in the Calabrian community in Toronto. Journal of Phonetics, 731, 91–112. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oh, Janet S., Jun, Sun-Ah, Knightly, Leah M., & Au, Terry Kit-fong (2003). Holding on to childhood language memory. Cognition, 86(3), B53–B64. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, Maria (2018). Heritage languages and their speakers. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Polinsky, Maria, & Scontras, Gregory (2020). Understanding heritage languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23(1), 4–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana, & Levey, Stephen (2010). Contact-induced grammatical change: A cautionary tale. In Peter Auer & Jürgen Erich Schmidt (Eds.), Language and space: An international handbook of linguistic variation (pp. 301–419). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana, & Meechan, Marjory (1998). Introduction: How languages fit together in codemixing. International Journal of Bilingualism, 2(2), 127–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana, & Tagliamonte, Sali (2001). African American English in the diaspora. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
R Core Team (2021). R: A language and environment for statistical computing [Computer software]. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Retrieved from [URL]
Rao, Rajiv (2015). Manifestations of /bdg/ in heritage speakers of Spanish. Heritage Language Journal, 12(1), 48–74. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(Ed.). (2024). The phonetics and phonology of heritage languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ravindranath, Maya (2015). Sociolinguistic variation and language contact. Language and Linguistics Compass, 9(6), 243–255. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ravindranath Abtahian, Maya, & Kasstan, Jonathan (2020). Contact and sociolinguistic variation. In Raymond Hickey (Ed.), The handbook of language contact (pp. 221–239). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reid, Lawrence A. (1973). Diachronic typology of Philippine vowel systems. In Thomas A. Sebeok (Ed.), Current trends in linguistics 11: Diachronic, areal, and typological linguistics (pp. 485–506). The Hague: Mouton and Co. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ronquest, Rebecca (2012). An acoustic analysis of Heritage Spanish vowels. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University.
Rothman, Jason, & Treffers-Daller, Jeanine (2014). A prolegomenon to the construct of the native speaker: Heritage speaker bilinguals are natives too! Applied Linguistics, 35(1), 93–98. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sanker, Chelsea, Babinski, Sarah, Burns, Roslyn, Evans, Marisha, Johns, Jeremy, Kim, Juhyae, Smith, Slater, Weber, Natalie, & Bowern, Claire (2021). (Don’t) try this at home! The effects of recording devices and software on phonetic analysis. Language, 97(4), e360–e382. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sankoff, Gillian (2001). Linguistic outcomes of language contact. In Peter Trudgill, J. K. Chambers, & Natalie Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 638–668). Oxford, UK: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2025). Sociolinguistics of multicultural societies: Implications for data and methodology. In Christopher Cieri, Lauren Hall-Lew, Katie Drager, & Malcah Yaeger-Dror (Eds.), Dimensions of linguistic variation (pp.70–93). New York: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schachter, Paul (2009). Tagalog. In Bernard Comrie (Ed.), The world’s major languages (pp. 833–855). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schachter, Paul, & Otanes, Fe T. (1972). Tagalog reference grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stanley, Joseph A. (2020a). Vowel dynamics of the elsewhere shift: A sociophonetic analysis of English in Cowlitz County, Washington. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia.
(2020b). The absence of a religiolect among Latter-Day Saints in Southwest Washington. The Publication of the American Dialect Society, 105(1), 95–122. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Statistics Canada (2023). Census profile. 2021. Census of population. Ottawa. Retrieved from [URL]
Tayao, Ma. Lourdes G. (2004). The evolving study of Philippine English phonology. World Englishes, 23(1), 77–90. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thomason, Sarah G. (2020). Contact explanations in linguistics. In Raymond Hickey (Ed.), The handbook of language contact (pp. 31–49). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tsao, Ying-Chiao, Weismer, Gary, & Iqbal, Kamran (2006). The effect of intertalker speech rate variation on acoustic vowel space. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119(2), 1074–1082. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tse, Holman (2019). Vowel shifts in Cantonese? Toronto vs. Hong Kong. Asia-Pacific Language Variation, 5(1), 67–83. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2022). What can Cantonese heritage speakers tell us about age of acquisition, linguistic dominance, and sociophonetic variation? In Robert Bayley, Dennis R. Preston, & Xiaoshi Li (Eds.), Variation in second and heritage languages: Crosslinguistic perspectives (pp. 97–126). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Umbal, Pocholo (2021). Filipinos front too! A sociophonetic analysis of Toronto English /u/-fronting. American Speech, 96(4), 397–423. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Umbal, Pocholo, & Nagy, Naomi (2021). Heritage Tagalog phonology and a variationist framework of language contact. Languages, 6(4), 201. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Willis, Erik W. (2005). An initial examination of Southwest Spanish vowels. Southwest Journal of Linguistics, 24(1–2), 185–199.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wittenburg, Peter, Brugman, Hennie, Russel, Albert, Klassmann, Alex, & Sloetjes, Han (2006). ELAN: A professional framework for multimodality research. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’06) (pp. 1556–1559). Genoa, Italy: European Language Resources Association (ELRA). [URL]
Yao, Yao, & Chang, Charles B. (2016). On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese. Language, 92(2), 433–467. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue