Voicing assimilation in an elective-bilingual child - Gradus - Revista Brasileira de Fonologia de Laboratório

This paper investigates the acquisition and realization of voicing assimilation in English by a 7-year-old elective bilingual child (Brazilian Portuguese–English) raised in a Portuguese-dominant environment. The study focuses on the production of the English <-s> morpheme and examines whether voicing is patterned according to progressive assimilation, characteristic of English (e.g., dogs → [dɔgz]), or whether productions reflect the influence of regressive assimilation patterns associated with Brazilian Portuguese, particularly in phonological contexts where both interpretations are phonetically plausible. Using a corpus of 60 target words elicited through controlled sentence reading, the analysis considers the role of the following phonological context (voiced vs. voiceless segment or pause) in conditioning voicing. Results show categorical voicing in voiced-following contexts and reduced voicing in voiceless or pause contexts, indicating a gradient and non-categorical acquisition of the English progressive assimilation rule.

The findings are interpreted in comparison with native speaker productions and previous studies on Brazilian learners of English reported in the literature, contributing to discussions on phonological development in elective bilingualism and on the effects of early exposure to English in non-immersion contexts dominated by non-native input.

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Published

2025-12-31

How to cite

OLIVEIRA, Simone Garcia de; SILVEIRA, Rosane. Voicing asimilation in na elective bilingual child: A case study of English phonological acquisition. Gradus: Revista Brasileira de Laboratório, v. 10, n. 2, p. 40-58, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.47627/gradus.v10i2.200

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Rosane Silveira

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