The phonetics and phonology of nasal vowels in Polish and transferability into English

Abstract

There appears to be a lack of consensus regarding the status of nasal vowels /ɔ̃ / and /ɛ̃ / in Polish as phonemes functioning as separate from /ɔ/ and /ɛ/. Some of the existing research treats them as complex segments made up of an oral vowel and a nasal stop and/or limits their occurrence in their nasal form to fricative preceding positions. This study investigates the status of these vowels by examining their realisations across different phonological contexts. It seeks in particular to assess whether nasalisation of vowels is affected by orthography and whether it is transferred into the L2 English of L1 Polish speakers. An auditory-acoustic analysis was carried out using speaking and reading task data which relied on semi-controlled and controlled stimuli. A detailed analysis of variants was carried out, with more such variants identified than previously described in the literature, although the phonological contexts in which they occurred was found to align with previous research on this topic. Orthography was in fact found to affect the pronunciation of these nasal vowels in Polish. Evidence of phonological transfer of nasalisation into English was also found although this study brought important insights into the topic, more research is needed.