Estonian as a heritage language in Sweden: Acoustic and perceptual characteristics of the quantity system

Authors

  • Leelo Keevallik Author
  • Pärtel Lippus University of Tartu Author
  • Karl Pajusalu University of Tartu Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v8i3.13978

Keywords:

language attrition, phonology attrition, heritage language, acoustic production, perception, Estonian in Sweden

Abstract

This paper studies the Estonian three-way phonological quantity distinction by second-generation Swedish Estonians. Production of the three phonological quantities has been measured in informal interviews with four speakers, all active members of the Estonian exile community. Comparisons with native Estonians show that three of the four Swedish Estonians had retained the length difference between quantity 2 and 3 in all disyllabic word types. All four displayed native-like pitch contours while two were somewhat inconsistent. The same speakers and four additional ones were then tested for perception of the quantities with re-synthesized speech stimuli. For Estonians in Estonia the temporal cue and the pitch cue are effective in combination, while the Swedish Estonian group shows extensive variability. Some speakers only display the effect of the temporal cue, similarly to fluent Estonian L2 speakers. Others have reduced the three-way system to a binary one. In this pilot study we can thus observe either incomplete acquisition in a foreign environment or language attrition in the first Swedish-born generation.

Author Biographies

  • Pärtel Lippus, University of Tartu
    Pärtel Lippus is a research associate of Estonian phonetics at the University of Tartu (Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics), Estonia. He recently defended his PhD at the University of Tartu with a thesis on the acoustic features and perception of the Estonian quantity system. He has published in Journal of Phonetics.
  • Karl Pajusalu, University of Tartu
    Karl Pajusalu is professor of Estonian dialectology and history of the Estonian language at the University of Tartu (Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics), Estonia, and a docent of the Finnic languages at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has published in areas of language variation, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics in Folia Linguistica Historica, Intercultural Pragmatics, Journal of Phonetics, Linguistic Review, and International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

Published

2015-05-11

How to Cite

Keevallik, L., Lippus, P., & Pajusalu, K. (2015). Estonian as a heritage language in Sweden: Acoustic and perceptual characteristics of the quantity system. Sociolinguistic Studies, 8(3), 357–382. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.v8i3.13978