This chapter is devoted to a linguistic analysis of the variable nature of English in public spaces in Belize, focusing on school, mass media, and research interviews. Adopting a decolonial perspective, it refrains from categorising English in Belize as a distinct and national variety. The analysis reveals significant linguistic variability in morphosyntax, phonetics, and prosody. Public English in Belize incorporates a range of forms influenced by Kriol, Spanish, and international English standards, challenging conventional notions of ’standard’ language. Morphosyntactic features reveal both local and non-local influences, while phonetic analyses reveal individual variations in vowel production linked to social, educational, and ideological factors. Prosodic variation, particularly pitch and intonation, emerges as a key marker of linguistic boundaries. English in Belize resists fixed categorisation and embodies a ’liquid’ linguistic character. This variability results from the absence of a hegemonic cultural and linguistic centre.

This chapter firstly outlines the phonological structure of Gaelic and aspects of phonetic implementation. I then consider methods used so far in the study of Gaelic phonological acquisition and review work in this area. The journey of language acquisition is varied across different sectors of the Gaelic-speaking population, as well as individuals. For example, while some children acquire Gaelic and English virtually simultaneously in the home, other children acquire Gaelic sequentially through a form of immersion schooling known as Gaelic Medium Education (GME). Many lie somewhere on a simultaneous-sequential continuum. Adult acquirers of Gaelic are a hugely diverse population, which naturally leads to a range of differing outcomes in the acquisition of phonology. In this overview of the field, I consider the different factors associated with multilingual phonological acquisition, and how they have predicted or challenged results obtained from data-driven studies of Gaelic. The chapter ends with a discussion about the multiple future directions needed for research in this area, including larger studies of primary-aged populations, and more focus on universities as an important locus of adult language acquisition.

This chapter lays out the theoretical devices on which the subsequent analysis builds. The first section introduces the phonological architecture used in the book, and in particular the distinction between the phonological, phonetic-phonological, and phonetic levels of representation, which underpin the notion of the life cycle that is central to the book’s argument. The second section recaps current views on the mechanisms of language contact and the role that phonological patterns can play under different contact scenarios. This is followed by a discussion of areal effects in phonology generally and some case studies beyond northern Europe, which exemplify various possibilities for recovering the history of contact from attested phonological patterns. The third section discusses the mechanisms of phonological convergence and the possible uses of sound patterns in diagnosing language contact in the past. Finally, the fourth section lays out the theory of the life cycle of phonological processes and introduces key related notions such as rule scattering and rule generalization, and lays out a proposal for how the life cycle can be used in examining language contact in the past.

This chapter describes ways to approach the phonetic analysis of talk-in-interaction. It starts off with a brief overview of some of the general issues. These include how we go about observing and transcribing. These are practices common to Conversation Analysis and phonetics, and the discussion aims to bridge different disciplinary norms. The chapter also presents a phonetically informed approach to analysing speech in data sessions. The main part of the chapter works through a short fragment of data line by line, showing how conversational data can be approached from a phonetic perspective while adopting a CA approach to analysis, and connecting the reader to wider concerns that have been addressed in the literature. The topics covered include sequential organisation, including turn beginnings and ends; speech timing across turns, including an illustration of rhythmicity; discussion of intonation and its functions in conversation; the relationship between phonetic design and social action; ways of building a collection of examples for analysis.

This chapter describes the process of building a collection, using the example of other-initiated repairs resolved by repetition. The phenomenon under investigation is shown in the following example: 1. A: you in the bathroom?2. B: huh?3. A: you in the bathroom? The focus of the chapter is more on the way in which the collection evolved and less on the analytic process. Lessons learned from building a collection as well as the strengths of this particular collection are discussed. The chapter also discusses the importance of linking linguistic phenomena, e.g. repetition, to social practices, e.g. other-initiated repair. It argues that tightly constrained collections can allow a clear demonstration of connections between linguistic forms and interactional practices. The chapter stresses how building a collection and conducting an analysis of it can be messy. The methodical process of setting a question, collecting just the right data to answer it, and discovering the answer, is the story we usually tell in our publications. This chapter instead tries to illuminate and illustrate just how rocky the path to completion can be.

Researchers in bilingualism seek to identify factors that are associated with specific features of bilingual speech. One such predictive factor is language dominance, typically understood as the degree to which one of the languages of a bilingual is more often and more proficiently used. In this chapter we review landmark studies that demonstrate the power of language dominance in predicting fine-grained phonetic and phonological characteristics of speech production and on the perceptual and processing abilities in one or both languages of bilinguals. We then critically examine the construct of dominance and identify ways that dominance can be and has been measured, as well as challenges inherent in the measurement of dominance. We follow demonstrating the dynamic character of dominance by reviewing research on dominance switches and shifts. This is followed by a review of extant studies on language dominance in bilingual speech production, perception, and processing in both languages. We conclude with four areas where research can be fruitfully directed.

The Automatic Selective Perception (ASP) model posits that listeners make use of selective perceptual routines (SPRs) that are fast and efficient for recovering lexical meaning. These SPRs serve as filters to accentuate relevant cues and minimize irrelevant information. Years of experience with the first language (L1) lead to fairly automatic L1 SPRs; consequently, few attentional resources are needed in processing L1 speech. In contrast, L2 SPRs are less automatic. Under difficult task or stimulus conditions, listeners fall back on more automatic processes, specifically L1 SPRs. And L2 speech perception suffers where there is a mismatch between the L1 and the L2 phonetics because L1 SPRs may not extract the important cues needed for identifying L2 phonemes. This chapter will present behavioral and neurophysiology evidence that supports the ASP model, but which also indicates the need for some modification. We offer suggestions for future directions in extending this model.

This chapter provides a thorough, up-to-date review of the literature on the phonetics and phonology of early bilinguals. It pulls together studies from a range of bilingual settings, including bilingual societies and heritage language contexts. While the chapter mostly reviews evidence from adolescent and adult participants, it also makes reference to the child bilingualism literature, where appropriate. The chapter first reviews studies on the accents of early versus late bilinguals, followed by a discussion of the various explanatory accounts for the observed differences between these two groups. Subsequently, the critical significance of early linguistic experience on bilingual speech patterns is considered, with particular reference to the evidence from childhood overhearers and international adoptees. The following sections then review studies comparing simultaneous and early sequential bilinguals, and those exploring the role of language dominance, continued use, the language of the environment in bilinguals’ pronunciation patterns, and the role of sociolinguistic factors in early bilingual speech patterns. The chapter concludes with suggestions for future research.

This chapter outlines studies within the domain of speech perception by bilingual adult listeners. I first discuss studies that have examined bilinguals’ perception of L1 and/or L2 speech segments, as well as those that have tested perception of unfamiliar, non-native speech segments. In turn, I examine each of the factors that are known to affect bilinguals’ perception of speech, which include age of L2 acquisition, effects of L1:L2 usage as they pertain to language dominance and proficiency, and short-term contextual effects on speech perception. I also provide an overview of the literature on bilinguals’ perception of suprasegmentals. Finally, I explore what I think are some of the crucial questions facing the field of bilingual speech perception.

This chapter presents an overview of what is currently known about phonetic and phonological first language (L1) attrition and drift in bilingual speech and introduces a new theory of bilingual speech, Attrition & Drift in Access, Production, and Perception Theory (ADAPPT). Attrition and drift are defined and differentiated along several dimensions, including duration of change, source in second language (L2) experience, consciousness, agency, and scope. We address why findings of attrition and drift are important for our overall understanding of bilingual speech and draw links between ADAPPT and well-known theories of L2 speech, such as the revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r), the Perceptual Assimilation Model-L2 (PAM-L2), and the Second Language Linguistic Perception model (L2LP). The significance of findings revealing attrition and drift is discussed in relation to different linguistic subfields. The chapter raises the question of how attrition and drift potentially interact to influence speech production and perception in the bilingual’s L1 over the life span; additional directions for future research are pointed out as well.

This chapter provides a cross-sectional overview of current neuroimaging techniques and signals used to investigate the processing of linguistically relevant speech units in the bilingual brain. These techniques are reviewed in the light of important contributions to the understanding of perceptual and production processes in different bilingual populations. The chapter is structured as follows. First, we discuss several non-invasive technologies that provide unique insights in the study of bilingual phonetics and phonology. This introductory section is followed by a brief review of the key brain regions and pathways that support the perception and production of speech units. Next, we discuss the neuromodulatory effects of different bilingual experiences on these brain regions from shorter to longer neural latencies and timescales. As we will show, bilingualism can significantly alter the time course, strength, and nature of the neural responses to speech, when compared with monolinguals.

In this chapter we examine a number of present-day varieties of Scots and Scottish Standard English (SSE). We begin by describing the Scots–SSE continuum, with its roots in earlier socio-cultural developments. We then turn to the present day, examining the attitudes towards different varieties of Scots across geographic and social dimensions. The main part of the chapter focuses on recent research on the many varieties of Scots, providing a detailed picture of the phonological and morphosyntactic forms found therein. In terms of phonology, Scots and SSE overlap, but remain divergent, especially given a number of phonological changes in Scots over the twentieth century, and continued Scots regional variation. The analysis of morphosyntax shows a core of forms shared across most varieties, including SSE, and these are largely stable. A number of other ‘home-grown’ forms are increasing in use across Scotland. Overall, our analysis shows that Scots is maintaining its own distinctive pathway in the twenty-first century.

Phonology has generally been neglected as a nexus of philosophical interest despite certain debates within the field both inviting and needing philosophical reflection. Yet, the few who have attempted such inquiry have noted something special about the field and its target. On the one hand, it shares formal and structural aspects with syntax. On the other, it seems to require more literal interpretation in terms of components such as hierarchy and sequential ordering. In this chapter, the nature of the phoneme, the theoretical centrepiece of traditional phonology, comes under scrutiny. The notion, as well as the field itself, is extended to other modalities, such as sign, in accordance with the contemporary trajectory of the field. This extension, and the connections with language and gesture in general, open up the possibility of a philosophical action theory with phonology as its basis. Motor and action theory have been proffered recently in connection with syntax, with little success. However, it’s argued that phonology serves as a better point of comparison. The chapter discusses a range of issues from autosegmental phonology, feature grammar, and sign language, to gestural grammar, motor cognition, and recent 4E approaches to cognition.