Babkina, V. (2018). Phonological interference of mother tongue over the English

abogado
/abogado/ becomes /aβoɣaðo/, 
admiraba
/admiraba/ 
becomes /aðmiraβa/, 
averiguad
/aberigwad/ becomes /aβeriɣwað/
95
.
It is also possible to observe that in a word-final position only the 
sound /d/ appears, which in its turn is pronounced as fricative /ð/, and in 
Peru particularly it is devoiced to /t/ or eliminated
96
. For example, in such 
Spanish words as 
edad, bondad, red, 
and in some other where the sound
 
/d/ 
becomes
/t/ 
at the end of the word or is not pronounced at all. The 
same process the borrowed English words undergo, for example, 
record, 
pub, esnob, hotdog 
and so on.
 
Wrong pronunciation of the voiced consonants in the English 
words in most cases leads to misunderstanding, and, therefore, impedes 
meaningful communication process.

Case 9. Replacing voiced dental fricative /ð/ with the sound /d/ 
and unvoiced dental fricative /θ/ with the sound /t/ or /f/. 
Example 1. Another advantage of quality products is … 
Example 2. He shared the power with his three brothers.
Example 3. Their mission is to be different from other chocolatiers.

The dental fricative sounds /ð/ and /θ/ are very common for the 
English language. As for Spanish, in some dialect variations the sound /θ/ 
is commonly used. M. Stanley Whitley (2002:26) stated that “One of the 
best-known features of Peninsular Spanish is the use of the voiceless 
dental fricative /θ/ for the sound spelled by 
z 
or (before 
e
or
 i
) 
c: cierra 
and 
vez. 
/θ/ is not distinguished from /s/ in any part of Spanish 
America…This merger of /θ/ with /s/ is called seseo
97
”. In other words, 
95
Stanley Whitley, M. (2002). Ibid. 
96
Resnick, M. (1975). Ibid. p. 20. 
97
Stanley Whitley, M. (2002). Ibid. p. 26. 

---

65 
the language variant of Spain (except for some regions) has the voiceless 
dental fricative sound /θ/ as mentioned above. However, in Latin 
American dialects of Spanish this sound is not distinguished
98
.
It is important to mention that the sound /θ/ in Peninsular Spanish 
is not paired as in the English language. The sound similar to the English 
voiced dental fricative /ð/ is dental approximant /ð/ which appears as a 
fricative or spirant allophone of the sound /d/ in certain positions in 
words or utterances
99
. Thus, the pronunciation of the voiced dental 
fricative /ð/ and the dental approximant /ð/ is quite different.
Therefore, when speaking about Peruvian EFL learners both 
sounds, /ð/ and /θ/, are uncommon for them. Students tend to replace 
these not-existing in their native languages system sounds with the 
existing ones which are most closely related to them from the point of 
view of their articulation. Thus, the sound /ð/ transforms into the sound 
/d/ and the sound /θ/ into the sounds /t/ or /f/. Such mispronunciation 
definitely 
causes 
unintelligibility 
and 
impedes 
meaningful 
communication.
To conclude here, the following can be stated. The nine cases of 
phonological interference discussed above are the examples of negative 
transfer of the knowledge of the mother tongue on the pronunciation of 
the consonant sounds of the English language. The phonological rules of 
Spanish were applied by the participants during their oral discourse in 
L2.
Besides that, the problems occurred mostly due to the unshared 
phonemes that are present in one language and are absent in another. In 
that case, the learners tried to replace an unfamiliar consonant sound with 
an existing one from their native tongue. Most of the time, the 
pronunciation problems appear when learners are uninformed about the 
correct sound pronunciation, its articulation, the phonological rules of the 
English language, and use of pronunciation features in the speech.
98
Resnick, M. (1975). Ibid. p. 36.
99
Stanley Whitley, M. (2002). Ibid. 

---

66 
Furthermore, the participants were not expected to have perfect 
native-like English pronunciation, but to be able to intelligibly transmit 
the message of the pronounced utterance. Thus, within the context of the 
present investigation, the above mentioned cases of phonological 
interference will be further discussed in the investigation.