Yao, YaoChang, Charles B.2017-12-212018-03-202017-12-212018-03-202016-06Yao Yao, Charles B Chang. 2016. "On the Cognitive Basis of Contact-Induced Sound Change: Vowel Merger Reversal in Shanghainese." Language: Journal of the Linguistic Society of America, Volume 92, Issue 2, pp. 433 - 467.0097-85071535-0665https://hdl.handle.net/2144/27818This 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.433 - 467Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Wu languageShanghaiPhonologyVowelsReversalVowel mergerLanguage contactMandarin languageCognitive scienceLinguisticsLanguages & linguisticsArticle10.1353/lan.2016.00310000-0002-3537-2053 (Chang, Charles B)