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In:Italo-Romance Heritage Languages: Multiple approaches
Edited by Eugenio Goria and Margherita Di Salvo
[Studies in Bilingualism 68] 2025
► pp. 130–149

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Segmental changes triggering perceived attrition in the native speech of a migrant group

 | University Carlo BoUrbino | University of International Studies of Rome
Published online: 11 September 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.68.06fro
Abstract
The present work aims to test the perceptual salience of the aspiration feature produced by a group of Italian-Argentines in their heritage language speech (dialects of the third Calabrian dialectological area). Specifically, the main purpose is to prove whether and to what extent the partial phonetic attrition of VOT values, evidenced for such speakers in their post-sonorant /p t k/ productions, has an impact on the perception of a global foreign accent, based on the judgements/evaluations of Italian native listeners coming from the same dialectological area. Three translated sentences (Italian > dialect) orally produced by nine heritage speakers living in Argentina were used to build a foreign accent rating test, along with the same dialectal sentences produced by a Calabrian control group. The test was carried out by 74 Calabrian listeners and the obtained scores converted into a 6-point Likert scale. Variability in listeners’ judgements is then tested assuming VOT durations and migrants’ psycho-social profiles as possible covariates. The negative effect of VOT variation on the scores of FAR (Foreign Accent Rating) suggests the phonetic attrition attested for post-sonorant stop aspiration is also perceivable, so confirming the hypothesis of ‘perceived attrition’ featuring the speech of native Calabrian migrants.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Foreign accent perception in the heritage speech of attriters
  • 2.The weight of acoustic features on foreign accent ratings: Research hypotheses and questions
  • 3.The foreign accent rating test
    • 3.1Speakers
    • 3.2Listeners
    • 3.3Stimuli
    • 3.4Acoustic data
    • 3.5The data set
    • 3.6Analyses
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Foreign accent perception
    • 4.2Mixed-effects models
      • /p/ values
      • /t/ values
      • /k/ values
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Quantitative remarks
    • 5.2Comments to qualitative data
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (61)
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