Plasticity of native phonetic and phonological domains in the context of bilingualism

The main point of this introduction, and therefore of the special issue, is to reveal and emphasise research findings which show that the domains of phonetics and phonology are malleable in adult native speech within the context of bilingualism. The manuscripts reveal this general finding through examination of a wide range of bilinguals using various methodologies. We believe that this finding is important for our understanding of the human capacity for language. Firstly, it is important because most humans speak more than one language. Therefore, to understand the human capacity for language, it is imperative to examine that majority. Moreover, this finding, that native phonetic and phonological domains are malleable throughout the lifespan in the context of bilingualism, is not an entirely accepted claim throughout research in linguistics. The idea that the native language stabilises at the latest in adolescence is still pervasive. Therefore, the findings presented in this special issue challenge a long held assumption. At a theoretical level, such studies revealing plasticity of native phonetic and phonological domains in the con- text of bilingualism substantiate a shift in research into cognition, indicating that the brain is malleable throughout life in both language and non-language domains.