Cross-Linguistic Influence in the Vocalic Systems of Ekhwa/Hausa Bilinguals

Previous research has found that even early bilinguals living in bilingual environments can show cross-linguistic influence in the phonetics of their vowel systems (Amengual, 2024). However, much of this work has involved language contact situations involving at least one Indo-European language. We address this gap in the literature by examining cross-linguistic influence in the vowel systems of Ekhwa and Hausa as spoken by Ekhwa people in Kaduna State in Northern Nigeria. We first provide evidence for a five-vowel system in Ekhwa. In contrast with strong spectral and durational differences between phonemic long and short vowels in Standard Hausa found in previous work, we find smaller durational differences, and for only three vowel pairs, as well as some spectral differences, suggesting a more marginal length distinction in this variety of Hausa. We also see differences in the acoustic separation of Hausa vowels and Ekhwa vowels in these speakers, based on a simple measure of language dominance. Those who are more dominant in Ekhwa show less phonetic distinction between their Ekhwa and Hausa vowels, while those who are more dominant in Hausa or more equally dominant show more phonetic distinction between their Ekhwa and Hausa.