Stability in the face of contact

Abstract The sociolinguistic realities of multilingualism raise questions about the linguistic outcomes of language contact. The present study addresses this issue in the context of heritage languages. It investigates whether the relative backness of /u/ in Heritage Tagalog exhibits crosslinguistic influence from English. Over 1600 tokens of Tagalog /u/ were extracted from spontaneous speech of two generations of heritage speakers in Toronto and two groups of age-matched homeland speakers in Manila. A multivariate analysis of linguistic and social factors shows lack of an apparent time change in Toronto and in Manila: /u/ is realized in the back periphery of the vowel space; though some degree of fronting in both varieties is evident, this is attributable to coarticulation and speech rate. The study demonstrates that Tagalog /u/ in Toronto shares the same variable system as in Manila, and properties of the linguistic system can remain stable in the face of contact.