Tonal facilitation of code-switching

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates the role in which Vietnamese tones may hold in facilitating code-switching between Vietnamese and English. Stress patterns of English and perceptual pattern of the six Vietnamese tones were compared (Vietnamese assigns one tone to each syllable). The analysis of Vietnamese tones immediately preceding code-switching reveals that there is a statistically significant proportion of the high tone group at the point of switching. This fact, together with the perceptually phonological compatibility between Vietnamese tones of high and mid-level pitch and English stressed vs unstressed syllables, suggests that code-switching tends to be facilitated by the mid-level to high pitch Vietnamese tones.