Presentation
Comparing two vowel mergers in Toronto vs. Hong Kong Cantonese in terms of functional load
Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting (LSA 2024)
(2024)
Abstract
The Functional Load Hypothesis states that phonemes with fewer contrasting minimal pairs are more likely to merge over time. A recent study of Toronto Cantonese /y/~/u/ has suggested that in a heritage language context, low functional load may have an even stronger effect than in monolingual settings by leading to sound changes that have not previously developed in the Homeland variety. The current study shows that in the case of an ongoing Homeland sound change with even lower functional load (pre-labial /ɐ/~/o/ merger in Hong Kong Cantonese), second-generation heritage speakers merge at even higher rates than Homeland speakers.
Keywords
- sound change,
- language change,
- functional load,
- vowel merger,
- bilingualism,
- heritage languages,
- Chinese- Yue
Disciplines
Publication Date
January 5, 2024
Location
New York, NY
Citation Information
Holman Tse. "Comparing two vowel mergers in Toronto vs. Hong Kong Cantonese in terms of functional load" Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting (LSA 2024) (2024) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/holman-tse/23/
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