Cross-dialectal exposure effects on the production and perception of the French low-vowel contrast

Individuals’ speech patterns can change after extended exposure to a second dialect (D2) of their native language, even in adulthood. While speech production changes in D2 acquisition are well documented, less is known about changes in perception and how production and perception interact. The present study investigates these issues in relation to geographically mobile speakers of Quebec French and Hexagonal French (the French of continental France) by comparing them to non-mobile speakers of each dialect. A sentence elicitation task and a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) lexical identification task were used to assess change in production and categorical perception of /a ~ ɑ/, a phonemic contrast that is widespread in Quebec French yet largely merged to /a/ in Hexagonal French. Results revealed no effect overall of mobility on /a ~ ɑ/ realization in production, but an asymmetrical effect of mobility on perception among the mobile Hexagonal French participants. Additionally, a complex interplay was observed between changes to perception and production, challenging the notion of a direct link between these domains in D2 acquisition. These findings present evidence of post-adolescent, perceptual adaptation and suggest that such perceptual adaptation is not linearly associated with production-based changes in D2 acquisition.