External Sandhi in L2 segmental phonetics - final (de)voicing in Polish English

Abstract

The effects of external sandhi, phonological processes that span word boundaries, have been largely neglected in L2 speech research. The glottalization of word‐initial vowels in Polish may act as a “sandhi blocker” that prevents the type of liaison across word boundaries that is common in English (e.g. find out/fine doubt). This reinforces the context for another process, final obstruent devoicing, which is typical of Polish‐accented English. Clearly ‘initial’ and ‘final’ do not mean the same thing for the phonologies of the two languages. An adequate theory of phonological representation should be able to express these differences. This paper presents an acoustic study of the speech of voiced C#V sequences in Polish English. Results show that the acquisition of liaison, which entails suppression of the L1 vowel‐initial glottalization process, contributes to the error‐free production of final voiced obstruents, implying the internalization of cross‐language differences in boundary representation