Language-specific intonation in the Palenquero/Spanish bilinguals

Abstract

Creole languages from the Caribbean seem to exhibit a hybrid prosodic system with tones from African substrate languages, and stress from European dominant languages. It is unknown however whether bilingual speakers of creole languages, such as Palenquero, have specific contexts where their two languages are prosodically distinct. Hence, this study examined whether the bilingual Palenquero/Spanish speakers keep their two languages prosodically distinct in statements and yes/no questions. Speakers performed two discourse completion tasks in two unilingual sessions, the first one in Palenquero and the second one in Caribbean Spanish. F0 contours and final lengthening of 189 five-syllable statements and 153 yes/no questions, from 9 participants, were tested with functional principal component and linear regression analyses. Results demonstrated that their two languages did not have distinct intonation in statements, and that final lengthening was not conditioned by language. Despite that, these speakers kept their two languages prosodically distinct in questions. Palenquero yes/no questions ending with iambic rhythm exhibited F0 peaks at the same height, yielding the global implementation of flat and plateau-shaped contours that did not occur in their Caribbean Spanish. This implies that these bilingual speakers, having two languages with a high overlap, can acquire/develop language-specific intonations in specific contexts.