AN ACOUSTIC STUDY OF FIRST- AND SECOND-GENERATION GUJARATI IMMIGRANTS IN WEMBLEY: EVIDENCE FOR ACCENT CONVERGENCE?

The present study investigated differences in the vowel production of first- and second-generation Gujarati immigrants in Wembley, north London. Subjects were recorded producing the eleven British English monophthongal vowels in the phonetic context /hVd/. F1 and F2 formant frequency values were measured and compared with existing acoustic and auditory descriptions of Standard Southern British English (SSBE). The results demonstrated that second generation immigrants had not acquired the foreign-accented vowels of their parents. Instead, these subjects produced vowels that were more similar to SSBE speakers than to those of second-generation immigrants in similar ethnic communities in London