Aims and objectives:

The study examines how bilingualism and adolescent identity interact to influence acoustic vowel patterns. This is examined in students at a secondary school in the socially and economically disadvantaged working-class Parisian suburbs.

Design:

The front, round vowels /y/, /ø/, and /œ/ were analyzed in the speech of (N = 22) adolescents. Three student groups were juxtaposed: monolingual Franco-French (N = 9) and two simultaneous bilingual groups, Arabic-French (N = 6), and Bantu-French (N = 7). Crucially, unlike French, these contact languages do not have phonemically round front vowels.

Data and analysis:

To elicit naturalistic speech, sociolinguistic interviews were conducted with students speaking in dyads or small groups. Vowel roundedness, derived from acoustic measurements of the third formant and the difference between the third and second formants, was compared across speaker groups.

Findings:

Results show an effect of bilingual status for male speakers – monolingual speakers pattern differently from both bilingual groups. Still, bilingual Bantu-French and Arabic-French speakers show some distinct patterning. This suggests influences beyond first-language phonology on bilingual speakers’ production of French.

Originality:

This is one of the first studies to look beyond Arabic substrate influence in emerging Hexagonal urban youth vernaculars. It contributes naturalistic data from those most prone to language change, adolescents, for the study of French in contact. Finally, the study proposes a type of ‘laboratory in the field’: because none of the contact languages contrast vowels by roundedness, first-language influence is controlled for and the effect of social stigmatization upon speech can be isolated.

Implications:

The findings suggest that the social and ethnic divisions between dominant ethnic groups and minorities of immigrant descent may even be reflected in their phonetic patterning. Because these patterns are present in adolescents, who are the source of much language change, a connection between segregation and language change is drawn.