First language attrition in voice onset times in anglophone expatriates residing in the Czech Republic

Abstract

The present article investigates first language attrition in the domain of phonetics in Anglophone expatriates (the British and Americans) residing long-term in the Czech Republic. The focus of the investigation is the influence of Czech and Czech-accented English plosives on the expatriates' native English ones. The results replicate previous findings, showing shortening of voice onset times in the expatriates' fortis plosives. As regards lenis plosives, the expatriates exhibited more frequent prevoiced realization than the controls. Thus, the findings of the present investigation indicate that even speakers of a prestigious language, who by no means lack the opportunity to use L1 both at home and at work, are not immune to L1 attrition or cross-linguistic influence.