Relación entre el tono y el acento en hablantes bilingües mazateco-español

Bilingualism, known as the ability to communicate in two languages respecting the rules and structures of each system (Crystal, 1987), it is not interesting by the conditions that creates it, but by the impact it causes at the speaking community. One of them is language interference. According to Dubois, language interference occurs when a bilingual uses the target language with phonetic, morphological and syntactical features of another language. For example, when the mother tongue is Mayan and the second language is Spanish “[…] they speak with phonetic and grammatical features, as well as some constructions that even though they are not Mayan language carbon copy, are part of the interlanguage that indigenous peoples use when they don’t speak Spanish fluently” (Lipski, 2007). However, language interference is not exclusive of second language non-fluent speakers, because even the fluent speakers “[…] maintain in a greater or lesser extent, phonetic features -segmental or suprasegmentally- characteristic of the L1, even if they had achieved high level standards of the FL (Foreign Language)” (Cortes, 2001). Apparently, aside of the command of the target language by the bilinguals, language interference makes the research of possible bilingual characterizations something needed, as it is approached by Llisterri (1991), whom research begins at the observance of modifications, intonation patterns and the voice quality to analyze the second language acquisition performance, in this case of Catalan language. The present work will focus in the language interference manifestation at a suprasegmentally level, making special emphasis in the accent and tone. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the language interference suprasegmentally manifestation on speakers whom their mother tongue is Mazatec and second language Spanish. In both languages the acoustic parameter characteristic is the Fundamental Frequency (from now on F0), so we can observe the Mazatec tonal system influence in the Spanish phrases accent. To verify the language interference between one language and the other one, a F0 comparative was made of the Spanish accented syllable and the Mazatec high pitched syllables on speakers whom their mother tongue was Mazatec; after that the results were compared with two F0 studies in Mexican variant Spanish, one of Martín Butragueño (2014) and one of Herrasti (2001). After that Shapiro-Wilk and t-student statistical tests were made to verify if the F0 values of the Spanish accented syllables and the Mazatec high pitched syllables showed some correlation that proves the influence of one language to another. Lastly, the values were converted into tones and semitones so the similarities were better appreciated. Thus, if this analysis of F0 values demonstrates the similarities between Spanish accent and Mazatec high pitched, there will be two possible interpretations:1. Tone and accent have the same acoustic characterization (Hz), regardless if the speaker speaks in Mazatec or Spanish.2. If accent and tone correlation is understood as a causal relationship between both elements, then it can be proved the existence of the influence among one language and the other, which causes the F0 normal values in a perceptive parameter to be transferred to another language (if we accept a priori that acoustic characterization is different in both languages).Furthermore, if F0 is different, it could mean that the F0 function determine its values (HZ) in each language.The paper structure is the following: first we will briefly review voices concepts (since a physical aspect), tone and accent; after all it is showed the manifestation of those perceptive parameter inside the languages we will studied, in addition to the dichotomies used to address the bilingualism as a phenomenon, so we will develop a more precise definition that prevailed in the chosen community for this study. Once we have reviewed these concepts, the samples results are presented, followed by an analysis from a statistical point of view and an analysis from a musical point of view so we can observe, with tones and semitones, the relative distance that we found between both records.The tone acoustic characterization in minority languages  will help us to understand at which extent bilingualism affect second language performance.