Abstract
This study investigates the phonetic implementation of Galician /ɛ-e/ and /ɔ-o/ as produced by Galician-Spanish
early bilinguals. It examines whether there is variation that can be explained by differences in participants’ linguistic
histories (as captured by their language dominance scores). Based on production data from one point in participants’ lives, the
study uses regression to predict phonetic variation from participants’ language dominance at that point in life. Results reveal
that, although participants produce a robust /ε/ vs /e/ contrast, the L1 specific category, /ε/ presented a more fronted position,
more like /e/, as a function of lower dominance in Galician. However, this effect was not replicated for the back vowels. Given
our results, we argue that differences in language dominance may trigger phonetic variation in bilingual speech production in some
variables, but not others. This result is consistent with the current cognitive approach in bilingualism research claiming the
plasticity of native phonetic domains throughout an individual’s lifespan. Results also align with recent claims that language
dominance does not equally affect multiple phonological processes for the same individual.