The Production of /l/ in Italian by HS and L2 Italian Speakers in Australia: Exploring the Effect of Syllable Position and Adjacent Vowel Quality

Heritage speakers (HS) are often noted for having a distinct sound or accent compared to both monolingual (L1) and second language (L2) speakers of the same language. In this study we focus on the production of the lateral approximant /l/ in Italian by HS and L2 speakers of the language in Melbourne (Australia) to investigate whether speaker status has an effect: in English both light (or clear) and dark (velarized) alveolar laterals occur depending on syllabic structure, while in Standard Italian /l/ is always a plain alveolar without secondary velarization. In this pilot study we conducted a production task with a set of words where /l/ occurred in different syllable positions and contexts, and which were read by three groups: HS, L2 and L1 Italian speakers. Results showed that the HS behave differently from both L1 and L2 speakers. However, while syllable position and structure influence the realization of /l/ between groups, there is no statistically significant difference within groups. Nevertheless, the quality of the adjacent stressed vowel influences the degree of lightness/darkness of the lateral sound across all groups.