Backward transfer of Glasgow English on Indian English and Hindi

Objectives: This study investigates phonetic backward transfer in first-generation multilingual Indians in Glasgow (‘Glaswasians’). According to the Revised Speech Learning Model (SLM-r) bilinguals’ languages interact and influence each other in a shared phonetic space which can over time lead to an assimilation or dissimilation of sound categories. This prediction is applied to explore whether and how the sound systems of Glaswasians’ native languages, Hindi and Indian English (IE), are influenced by the host variety Glasgow English (GE) after migrating to Glasgow. It also examines whether GE will affect IE more than Hindi due to linguistic proximity. Methodology: Two speaker groups were recruited. Both groups are native multilingual speakers of Hindi and Indian English, but differ in their language environment. The ‘Glaswasian’ group live in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and are constantly exposed to the ambient dialect of Glasgow English. The ‘Indian’ group live in India, where Hindi and Indian English are unaffected by contact with Glasgow English. Speakers were recorded reading sentence lists in English and Hindi containing three types of sounds: /b d ɡ/, /l/, /u/. Data analysis: The analysis looked for effects of Group (Glaswasian/Indian) and Language (Hindi/English) on multiple acoustic properties – pre-voicing and burst intensity for /b d ɡ/; F1, F2, F3 for /u/; F2-F1 difference for l/. Acoustic measures were taken in Praat; repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) and t-tests were conducted in R. Findings: Results were mixed for Glaswasians. Assimilation emerged in /u/ in Indian English (IE) and Hindi for F2, F3, and also for F2-F1 difference in /l/ in IE; partial assimilation appeared in both languages for /b d ɡ/; and dissimilation appeared in Hindi for /l/ and /u/. However, IE did not show more influence from GE than Hindi, suggesting that linguistic proximity may not necessarily modulate the nature of interaction between sound systems. Originality: This paper demonstrates backward transfer across languages and dialects. It illustrates the complexity of backward transfer and examines the impact of a majority language (English) onto a minority language (Hindi) in a novel group. In addition, it compares a bilingual experimental group with a bilingual ‘control’ group, which is rarely done. Significance: This study contributes to the knowledge of cross-linguistic transfer and phonetic variation and change while highlighting the various ways in which backward transfer can be manifested.