Bilingual adolescent vowel production in the Parisian suburbs

Aims and objectives:The study examines how bilingualism and adolescent identity interact to influence acoustic vowel patterns. This is examined in students at a secondary school in the socially and economically disadvantaged working-class Parisian suburbs.Design:The front, round vowels /y/, /o/, and /œ/ were analyzed in the speech of (N = 22) adolescents. Three student groups were juxtaposed: monolingual Franco-French (N = 9) and two simultaneous bilingual groups, Arabic-French (N = 6), and Bantu-French (N = 7). Crucially, unlike French, these contact languages do not have phonemically round front vowels.Data and analysis:To elicit naturalistic speech, sociolinguistic interviews were conducted with students speaking in dyads or small groups. Vowel roundedness, derived from acoustic measurements of the third formant and the difference between the third and second formants, was compared across speaker groups.Findings:Results show an effect of bilingual status for male speakers – monolingual speakers pattern...