Vowels are particularly subject to change in the language contact situation of Cantonese in North America. For example, Author 4 (2024a, 2024b) shows acoustic evidence of the merger of /y/ and /u/. This may be due to influence from English, which lacks a similar vowel contrast. This merger was found only among Toronto speakers and is completely absent in Hong Kong Cantonese. Up to this point, research on this merger has been limited to production-based studies. In this study, we address the perceptual merger of /u/ and /y/ and how it may be influenced by Cantonese language proficiency. Heritage speakers of Cantonese in Hawaiʻi (N = 30) were tested using an AB discrimination task to test whether they have the merger in perception, using syllables produced by an L1 Cantonese speaker as stimuli. Accuracy and reaction times from the task were analyzed as a function of Cantonese proficiency to determine the progress of the merger. Cantonese proficiency was also determined by both prompted speaking assessment tasks and self-assessment through a language background survey. Data collection is ongoing; preliminary analysis of a pilot shows evidence of an incomplete merger: Heritage listeners are still able to distinguish /u/ and /y/ with high accuracy.
Cheng et al. (Wed,) studied this question.