Voice onset time in Spanish-English spontaneous code-switching

摘要

Research on the phonetics of code-switching has focused on voice onset time (VOT) and hasudyielded mixed results regarding cross-language interaction, possibly due to differences in data usedud(scripted vs. spontaneous speech) and populations examined (L1 vs. L2 dominant, early vs. lateudbilinguals). Here VOT was measured in a corpus of spontaneous code-switching speech elicitedudfrom a homogeneous group of early bilinguals in conversation with and without distractionud(completion of jigsaw puzzles). The distraction meant to increase cognitive load, a manipulationudthat could affect phonetic realization. Both English and Spanish VOT were shorter at codeswitchingudpoints than in comparable monolingual utterances. English VOT lengthened overall underudincreased cognitive load (but remained shorter in code-switching as compared to the monolingualudcontext). These results support previous findings of VOT shortening in code-switching for bothudEnglish and Spanish, and confirm that the effect applies in the natural speech of early bilinguals.