The role of the Prosodic Hierarchy on learning phonological rules: /b d g/ spirantization by L1 German learners of Spanish

Barrientos, Fernanda; Bajuk, Ludmila; Gökkaya, Miray

doi:10.1075/lab.25030.bar

Squib published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 16:2 (2026) ► pp.233–250

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Squib

The role of the Prosodic Hierarchy on learning phonological rules

/b d g/ spirantization by L1 German learners of Spanish

Fernanda Barrientos | University of Konstanz

Ludmila Bajuk | University of Konstanz

Miray Gökkaya | University of Konstanz

Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with University of Konstanz.

Published online: 2 December 2025

https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.25030.bar

Abstract

We investigate the influence of the prosodic structure of German as first language (L1) on the application of the spirantization rule in Spanish as a second language (L2). According to the Prosodic Hierarchy, the prosodic domains in which phonological rules apply may vary according to whether the language has a grouping tendency or not. While Spanish spirantization (where /b d g/ are produced as [β ð ɣ] after continuant sounds) applies across the Intonational Phrase (IP), German restricts grouping processes to smaller domains, the largest of them being the phonological word (pword). We hypothesized that L1 German learners of Spanish apply spirantization progressively, starting from the pword. Twenty-six participants were recorded reading two texts with instances of /b d g/ within foot, pword, and IP. Results support that L1 German learners of Spanish spirantize mainly within feet, and less so within pwords and IPs; furthermore, consonants /b — d/ are more likely to be spirantized than /g/ across all contexts by more proficient learners. We conclude that the starting point of spirantization is not the largest one licensed by the learner’s L1, but that there is an L1-independent path where learners start from the smallest domain in the hierarchy.

Keywords: L2 phonology, Prosodic Hierarchy, spirantization, domains of application, transfer

Article outline

1.Introduction
2.Background
- 2.1The Prosodic Hierarchy
- 2.2Spanish spirantization and its prosodic domain
- 2.3German
- 2.4Previous findings in L2 acquisition
3.This study
4.Method
- 4.1Participants
- 4.2Material
- 4.3Procedure
- 4.4Data analysis
5.Results
6.Discussion and conclusion
Data availability
CRediT statement
Notes
References

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