Final Voicing and Devoicing: Incomplete Neutralization and L2 Acquisition  

This is an ongoing project in collaboration with Allard Jongman and Joan Sereno.

In this project we examined acoustic correlates of final devoiced consonants in Russian and established that the underlying voicing contrast was not fully neutralized in the production of native speakers of Russian. In addition, we showed that advanced second language learners of Russian (native English speakers) were able to neutralize the undelrying voicing distinction completely in their Russian speech unlike the monoloingual speakers of Russian. Finally, Russian speakers recurited in the English-speaking community showed evidence of their second language (English) interfering with the final devoicing production in Russian. Specifically, greater exposure to English correlated with greater acoustic differences between underlying voiced and voiceless final obstruents in speech of these participants.

Papers and Presentations

Dmitrieva, O. (2015) Less of this, more of that: Trading relations in production of word-nal voicing contrast in American English. Presented at the Phonetics and Phonology in Europe, Cambridge, UK. [slides]

Dmitrieva, O. (2014) Final Voicing and Devoicing in American English. Poster presented at the 168th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Indianapolis, Indiana. [poster]

Dmitrieva, O., Jongman, A., Sereno, J. (2010) Phonological neutralization by native and non-native speakers: The case of Russian final devoicing. Journal of Phonetics 38, 483-492. [pdf]

Dmitrieva, O. (2005) Incomplete neutralization in Russian final devoicing: acoustic evidence from native speakers and second language learners. The 149th Annual Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Vancouver, Canada. [poster]

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