The production of Catalan mid-back vowels by Catalan-Spanish bilinguals

The present paper analyzes the production of the Catalan /o/-/ɔ/ contrast by six groups of Catalan-Spanish bilinguals residing in the island of Majorca. A process of phonetic convergence between the two languages is currently taking place, with some Catalan features spreading to Spanish and vice versa (Simonet 2008). Based on previous L2speech research (e.g. Flege et al. 1995, 1999, Oyama 1976), it was hypothesized that the Spanish-dominant bilinguals would face great difficulties in producing the Catalan vowel contrast, since there is no such contrast in Spanish. On the other hand, no hypotheses were advanced regarding the effects of age and/or gender within the Catalan-dominant group, since none have been reported in previous literature regarding this specific contrast. However, since effects of these factors have been found for other features, the decision was made to investigate this vowel contrast as well.