English Interdental Fricative Production in Dutch Heritage Speakers Living in Canada

Abstract:

This study investigates the production of /θ/ and /ð/ by three groups of English-speakers in the community of Norwich, Ontario, Canada. English monolinguals, heritage Dutch speakers (early bilinguals), and L1 Dutch/ L2 English speakers (late-learning bilinguals) /θ/ and /ð/ production was measured in both naturalistic and reading tasks. Heritage Dutch speakers produce ENT#091;θENT#093; and ENT#091;ðENT#093; at similar rates to Monolingual English speakers, but the two groups exhibit different allophonic realizations, especially when /ð/ is word-initial and /θ/ is word-medial. This study suggests that despite their ability to produce ENT#091;θENT#093; and ENT#091;ðENT#093; , Dutch heritage speakers may manipulate the inherently variable English /θ/ and /ð/ production to communicate their Dutch cultural identity. This is the first study to examine both heritage Dutch bilinguals in Canada and non-English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom Dutch English.

Keywords:
Heritage phonology; Bilingualism; L2 speech learning; Socio-phonetics; Interdental fricatives; Dutch; English