Phonetic Traces of American English in the Ukrainian Language of L2 Speaker: a Case Study

The urgent necessity to look into language interaction and contact emerged as a result of the rise in interest in the Ukrainian language and the scarcity of online resources addressing the development of adequate phonetic abilities for foreigners. Such decision-making was additionally driven by the lack of publicly available information about how Ukrainian sounds are pronounced when influenced by other accents.
Such studies are important today because they could provide new insights into language transfer and the influence of English as a world language on various linguistic tendencies. The case study is crucial for comprehending intercultural communication, the phonetic effects of language contact in the context of Ukrainian, and foreign language acquisition.
The theoretical framework for the research was developed based on a careful analysis of the data present in the specialized literature in order to achieve the paper's goals, which are to examine and capture the specific phonetic modifications and influences that occur in the Ukrainian language of L2 speakers as a consequence of exposure to American English. The factors and principles that influence language learning, bilingualism, second language acquisition, phonetics, phonology, accent, and phonological interference are all coherently articulated. Exploring the complexities of language learning and its subsequent repercussions requires a grasp of these concepts.
The transcription and examination of the data came next. The International Phonetic Alphabet was then used to precisely define the sounds made in the voice samples, providing the data for further study.
After gathering the information, six Ukrainian vowels were carefully evaluated and compared to the Ukrainian standard for both the African American speaker's accented and unaccented word pronunciations. Because vowels exhibit greater perceptual intensity and a wider range of variation, only these sounds were used in this research.
According to the findings of the acoustic analysis, the vowels /ɑ+/, /o̞/ and /i/ and their unstressed equivalents have been neutralized to positions that are more natural for speakers of African American descent. Therefore, some American substitutes are used in place of these sounds. However, the midlow front vowel /ɛ-/ and its unstressed counterparts /ɘ̞+/ and /ɜ̝+/, as well as the near-close near-front unrounded vowel in both its accented and unaccented positions, are the only sounds that adhere to the rules of the Ukrainian vowels. The sounds /u/ and /ʊ/ were extremely close to becoming impeccable. Although the formant values of F1 are within acceptable ranges, F2 demonstrates that the vowels being produced by the speaker are not placed in the back of the mouth cavity as is necessary in the Ukrainian language.
Given that no previous work has been done on a comprehensive study of the phonological characteristics of Ukrainian vowels affected by an African American pronunciation, it is reasonable to assume that the paper possesses a high degree of academic uniqueness. In the linguistic context of interaction between American English and Ukrainian, the research can be utilized to better comprehend the notions of language transfer and contact phenomena.

Hutsal A. Phonetic Traces of American English in the Ukrainian Language of L2 Speaker: a Case Study : master’s thesis : 035 Philology / supervised Karaban Anna. Kyiv, 2023. 93 p.