Lexical transference in the speech of Macedonian English bilingual speakers in the Illawarra Region of NSW

This study focusses on the speech of Macedonian English bilingual speakers in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, where there is a large Macedonian community. The study analyses the lexical transference which occurs in the Macedonian language because of the contact with English. Speech was collected in two series of interviews. The first were structured interviews involving the completion of a questionnaire by sixteen informants, half of whom were adult bilinguals and the other half were child bilinguals (who were also divided equally between male and female). The lexical transference which occurred in the sample, with a very small number of exceptions, related to tangible objects connected with the new circumstances encountered by the migrants on arrival. The phonological integration of transfers was analysed with reference to the treatment of consonantal clusters in the final position in the English model and the manner in which the wide range of Australian English vowels were allocated to the five pure Macedonian vowels, including in particular, the manner in which the indeterminate vowel is treated. Morphological integration of transfers is indicated in the determination of the gender and number of the noun transfers and the conjugation of the verb transfers. Adjectives and adverbs were found to occur as morphologically unintegrated transfers. A glossary of lexical transfers which occurred was compiled, listed in alphabetical order, according to the English model and divided into word classes. In the comparison between the adult and child bilinguals, there was a difference in the amount and type of transference. The child bilinguals used a greater number of transfers and, generally speaking, the transfers were less integrated (on all levels) than those used by the adult bilinguals. There were a greater number of transfers relating to abstract concepts used by child bilinguals, even though the overall number of such transfers was low. There was semantic transference in the speech of the child bilinguals but none in that of the adult bilinguals.