Intergenerational transmission of laterals in Punjabi-English heritage bilinguals

Kirkham, Sam and Zara, Maya (2024) Intergenerational transmission of laterals in Punjabi-English heritage bilinguals. In: The Phonetics and Phonology of Heritage Languages :. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 129-146. ISBN 9781108833101

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Abstract

This chapter tracks the development of laterals across three generations of Punjabi-English bilinguals living in England. These speakers are hypothesized to speak a Punjabi-influenced contact variety of English that is typically called ‘British Asian English.’ In this study, we aim to understand the processes of phonetic and phonological transfer that led to the formation of British Asian English, and how phonetic variation is subsequently adapted and modified by a community. Our study finds that first-generation (Gen1) speakers produce phonetically similar laterals across languages and word positions, suggesting that they have a single cross-linguistic category. In contrast, second- (Gen2) and third- (Gen3) generation speakers show clear acquisition of allophony in English, yet these patterns do not resemble the system reported for the local monolingual accent. Gen3 speakers further show the greatest phonetic distinctions between their English and Punjabi. The results suggest that the English of younger speakers is developing into a distinctive accent that bears similarity to that produced by other British Asian. speakers across the UK.