摘要：This article addresses the development of the phonological system of Russian as a heritage language (RHL) in the speech by bi/multilingual children. The chapter reports the results of a qualitative study examining phonological characteristics in the Russian speech of 29 bi/multilingual children (between 5 and 6 years old) from immigrant families in Saskatchewan. The results provided with reference to Russian monolingual child (MR) speech data demonstrate that child RHL speakers produce non-canonical forms (forms different from standard adult language use) similar to the ones by MR speakers. These forms include rhotacism, consonant cluster reductions, gliding, sonorant deletions, and other processes common in child speech. Some RHL speakers also employ dialectal and colloquial forms. In particular, Southern Russian/Ukrainian [ɦ] sound use was observed in the speech of 8 participants whose parents immigrated from Eastern Ukraine. Some limited evidence suggesting the possibility of a double phonemic system (with elements of Russian and Ukrainian or Suržik) has been observed in the speech of two RHL participants.
关键词：Russian-as-a-heritage-language acquisition by children; child bilingualism; heritage language; immigrant language of Canada; sound system; phonology
