On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese Article Swipe

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Sound change Linguistics Mandarin Chinese Language contact Vowel Psychology Phonology Language change Similarity (geometry) Computer science Philosophy Artificial intelligence Image (mathematics)

Yao Yao , Charles B. Chang ·

YOU? · · 2016 · Open Access · · DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0031 · OA: W1651203837

This study investigates the source and status of a recent sound change in Shanghainese (Wu, Sinitic) that has been attributed to language contact with Mandarin. The change involves two vowels, /e/ and /ɛ/, reported to be merged three decades ago but produced distinctly in contemporary Shanghainese. Results of two production experiments show that speaker age, language mode (monolingual Shanghainese vs. bilingual Shanghainese-Mandarin), and crosslinguistic phonological similarity all influence the production of these vowels. These findings provide evidence for language contact as a linguistic means of merger reversal and are consistent with the view that contact phenomena originate from cross-language interaction within the bilingual mind.