An Examination of Greek Vowel Production by Adult Albanian Speakers of Greek as a Second Language

This study examines the acoustic characteristics of Greek vowels (first three formants and duration) produced by adult Albanian speakers of Greek as a second language (L2) and compares them to those of first language (L1) Greek speakers. Participants took part in a production test in which they produced monosyllabic words containing the five Greek vowels. The results from the Bayesian analysis revealed differences in the productions of the two populations, related to all vowels for at least one acoustic measure. Other productions, such as F1 of Greek vowels /i a o u/, F2 of Greek vowels /i a/, F3 of Greek vowels /i o/, and the duration of Greek vowels /a u/, did not differ from those of L1 Greek speakers. The similar production of some acoustic characteristics can be explained by the similarity of the vowel systems of Albanian and Greek at the phonological level. It can also be interpreted in terms of the many years of residence of the nonnative speakers in Greece and the frequent use of the L2 as a result of their interaction with L1 speakers. The differences may be due to L1-L2 interference, given the phonetic differences in the closest acoustic vowels between the two languages, or the broader sociophonetic context of the speakers, among other factors. The study contributes to the small body of research on the production of Greek sounds by Albanian speakers, informing current psycholinguistic theories.