On non-native coarticulation: (New) prospective insights into (old) multilingualism- and phonetics-related issues?

Coarticulatory effects are language-specific and sub-categorical in nature. Nonetheless, they are pervasively exploited in speech production and perception. Yet, they are usually neutralized or marginalized in multilingualism and acquisitional research. Attaining native-like pronunciation is rare for adult learners, and even fine-grained patterns can cue accentedness. The aim of this chapter is two-fold. Firstly, it provides a literature overview of non-native coarticulation research, especially highlighting the background affecting its fragmentary epistemological status and the resulting issues. Studies on non-native coarticulation are limited and adopt a predominantly phonetic perspective. Secondly, a novel multidisciplinary approach is proposed and discussed as a potential solution to address these issues, by integrating state-of-the-art knowledge of multilingualism, language acquisition, and experimental phonetics. Adopting this approach would not only enhance our understanding of non-native coarticulation itself but also allow us to gain new prospective insights into long-standing issues. On the one hand, classic topics of multilingualism and language acquisition can be assessed in a further field, to explore interactions of coarticulation strategies with well-known linguistic, psycholinguistic, social, and contextual factors. On the other hand, the analysis of non-native coarticulation may also constitute a valid heuristic method to enhance cross-linguistic comparability in experimental phonetics by keeping segmental and suprasegmental targets constant.