Fonetyka a socjologia: wzdłużenie samogłosek angielskich w mowie dwóch pokoleń imigrantów polskich w Wielkiej Brytanii

Abstrakt

Vowel lengthening as a clue for voicing of the following consonant has been chosen as one of the phonetic parameters used in the sample analysis of the English production of two generations of Polish immigrants in Britain. The hypothesis discussed in the paper concerns the influence of the speaker s attitude towards the major speech community – English speech community in this case – on the use of the chosen parameter. The choice of vowel lengthening has been based on the expected difficulty in the employment of the clue by the native speakers of Polish. The results are complex: although they verify the main claim, they also point to the need for further research in the area of the speech of immigrants as the learners of the second language in natural environment.