Yao, YaoChang, Charles B.2018-03-202022-01-032018-03-202022-01-032016Y. Yao, C.B. Chang. 2016. "On the cognitive basis of contact-induced sound change: Vowel merger reversal in Shanghainese [online appendices]." Language, vol. 92 no. 2, 2016, p. 433-467. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2016.0031.https://hdl.handle.net/2144/43534This study investigates the source and status of a recent sound change in Shanghainese (Wu, Sinitic) that has been attributed to language contact with Mandarin. The change involves two vowels, /e/ and /ɛ/, reported to be merged three decades ago but produced distinctly in contemporary Shanghainese. Results of two production experiments show that speaker age, language mode (monolingual Shanghainese vs. bilingual Shanghainese-Mandarin), and crosslinguistic phonological similarity all influence the production of these vowels. These findings provide evidence for language contact as a linguistic means of merger reversal and are consistent with the view that contact phenomena originate from cross-language interaction within the bilingual mind.Pages 433-467en-USCopyright © 2016 Yao Yao & Charles B. ChangArticle10.1353/lan.2016.0031175209