s-retraction in Italian-Tyrolean bilingual speakers: a preliminary investigation using the ultrasound tongue imaging technique

This paper presents a preliminary description of the articulation of /s/ in Italian as spoken by Italian-Tyrolean simultaneous and sequential bilingual speakers. The objective is to discuss whether they articulate /s/ differently. To this aim, articulatory differences across monolingual and bilingual speakers are commented upon, in particular focusing on s-retraction, which is attested to different degrees in ItalianTyrolean simultaneous bilingual speakers and in Tyrolean-dominant sequential bilinguals, but not in Italian-dominant sequential bilingual speakers.