Voice onset time of bilingual English and French‐speaking Canadians

There is evidence of voice onset drift when bilinguals are submerged in cultures that are dominated by their second language (L2). Sancier and Fowler [Gestural drift in a bilingual speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and English,‘‘ J. Phonet. 4, 421‐436 (1997)] found that voiceless stop voice onset times (VOTs) of a bilingual speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and English were longer after months spent in the US than after time spent in the speaker’s first language (L1) context. Flege [’’The production of ‘‘new’’ and ‘‘similar’’ phones in a foreign language: Evidence for the effect of equivalence classification,‘‘ J. Phonet. 15, 47–65 (1987)] studied French L1 English L2 bilinguals and English L1 French L2 bilinguals who had spent about 12 years living in the L2 dominant culture. The French L1 English L2 bilinguals VOTs were longer than the VOTs of French monolinguals. The English L1 French L2 bilinguals VOTs were shorter than the VOTs of English monolinguals. In the present study the nature of the experience un...