Cross-Linguistic Influence on Nasalance in Vietnamese–English Bilingual Speakers: Why Is Nasalance Higher for the Vowel /a/ Than /i/?

The nasalance scores of Vietnamese-English bilinguals more closely resembled those of monolingual English speakers, suggesting an influence of the second language on resonance domain. However, the higher nasalance score of /a/ compared to /i/ indicates that bilingual speakers retain native resonance characteristics when other linguistic factors are minimized. These findings contribute to our understanding of cross-linguistic influences on nasalance and provide important insight for clinical assessment in Vietnamese-speaking populations in the United States.