Prosodic influence in bilingual phonological development: Evidence from a Portuguese-French first language learner

Abstract

The literature on bilingual language development abounds with controversial claims about grammatical autonomy vs. interdependence of the two languages being acquired. However, very little is known about the factors that may yield interaction. Paradis (2001) points at language dominance, while Lleó (2002) suggests that it is driven by grammatical properties of the languages being acquired.In this paper, we discuss previously unpublished longitudinal data from a simultaneous learner of French and European Portuguese. We focus on the relationships between the development of segments and that of syllable structure in both of the child’s languages, and compare our data with the literature on monolingual French and Portuguese development. We argue that while the child develops two independent systems, interactions between these systems yield systematic segmental effects in specific prosodic contexts. We show that influences between the two languages only occur in prosodically ‘weak’ positions (second consonant of branching onsets, word-medial codas), while more autonomous development is found in prosodically ‘strong’ positions (singleton onsets, final consonants). This evidence points to systematic, prosodically-driven interactions. Furthermore, it contradicts a priori predictions based on language dominance: the influence occurs bi-directionally and over the same developmental period.