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Minimal-pair word learning by bilingual toddlers: the Catalan /e/-/ɛ/ contrast revisited*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2016

MARTA RAMON-CASAS ,
CHRISTOPHER T. FENNELL  and
LAURA BOSCH
MARTA RAMON-CASAS
Affiliation:
Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of Barcelona
CHRISTOPHER T. FENNELL
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa
LAURA BOSCH*
Affiliation:
Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of Barcelona. Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona
*
Address for correspondence: Laura Bosch, Department of Cognition, Development and Education Psychology, University of Barcelona, 171, Passeig Vall d'Hebron, 08035-Barcelona (Spain) [email protected]
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Abstract

Twelve-month-old bilingual and monolingual infants show comparable phonetic discrimination skills for vowels belonging to their native language/s. However, Catalan–Spanish bilingual toddlers, but not Catalan monolinguals, appear insensitive to a vowel mispronunciation in familiar words involving the Catalan–Specific /e/-/ɛ/ contrast. Here bilingual and monolingual toddlers were tested in a challenging minimal-pair word learning task involving that contrast (i.e., [bepi]-[bɛpi]). Both groups succeeded, suggesting that bilinguals can successfully use their phonetic categories to phonologically encode novel words. It is argued that bilinguals’ impoverished vowel representations in familiar words might be the result of experiential input factors (e.g., cognate words and mispronunciations due to accented speech).

Keywords

bilingual toddlersphonological representationminimal-pair word learningvowel contrastCatalan
Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 20 , Issue 3 , May 2017 , pp. 649 - 656
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

*

This research has received funding from the Spanish MINECO (projects PSI2011-25376 and PSI2014-55105P to LB) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to CTF. The authors want to thank all the infants and the families who participated in this research.

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