The Velar Nasal in L2: A Revisited Approach
The Velar Nasal in L2: A Revisited Approach

Summary/Abstract: The present approach is a contrastive analysis of the English velar nasal acquired by Romanian learners. In this vein of thought, it is essential to acknowledge the distinct status the velar nasal has in the consonantal inventory of the two languages: a derived form in Romanian vs. an underlying representation in English. Given the dissimilarities of the realization of the velar nasal in English and Romanian, my aim is to prove that there is negative transfer from the source language into the target language. In addition, this article attempts to adduce phonetic evidence in support of the phonological assumptions formulated throughout the paper by means of an indepth interpretation of spectrograms showing nasals obtained in the production experiment I conducted. The SLM theoretical model concerned with the acquisition of Second Language phonology is also tested on the basis of the spectrographic analysis obtained. It is to note that the current article also covers a statistical analysis based on four categories of Romanian informants.

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