Dialect contact across three generations : a sociophonetic analysis of variation in [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, h] in a contact variety in Hohhot, China

Abstract

This paper presents a sociophonetic analysis of a linguistic feature in the formation of a contact variety in Hohhot, a Chinese immigrant city. The new mixed variety was induced by contact between the local Jìndialect-speaking community and the Mandarinspeaking migrant community. The linguistic feature examined was the insertion of a period of frication (often [x]) after [pʰ, tʰ, kʰ, h]. Linguistic production of 67 speakers (1957 tokens) from three generations of the local and migrant communities were collected and analyzed by perceptual coding (verified by acoustic measurements). Results of mixed effects regression show that this variable is constrained by both social and linguistic factors. Typical Jìn speakers in the older generation is significantly more likely to use the [x] variants than non-Jìn-speaking migrants, while in the middle and younger generation, when the contact variety has formed, the two communities showed convergence in their probability of using this linguistic feature.