Effects of contact between distinct phonetic categories in immigration contexts: a review on first language attrition

There are still few studies, especially in Brazil, that seek to investigate the process of non-pathological and non-age related first language loss, here taken as language attrition, a frequent phenomenon in the production and perception of speech sounds by immigrants. The aim of this qualitative and bibliographical work is then to present an overview on language attrition and on the effects of contact between distinct phonetic categories in the Voice Onset Time production by immigrants in a dominant L2 context, also seeking to discuss the dynamic character to language, and to popularize this area of investigation. --- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22409/gragoata.2017n42a90