Most English compounds are spaced compounds, whereas spelling
regulations prescribe Finnish compounds to be written in a concatenated
format. However, as in English, Finnish compounds are commonly spaced
nowadays (e.g., piha juhla ‘garden party’), a phenomenon that we labeled
the ‘English disease’. In this eye movement study with Finnish–English
bilinguals we investigate whether the reading of a concatenated or
illegally spaced Finnish compound is affected by the spelling of an
English translation equivalent (ETE). We found that spaced Finnish
compounds were read slower than their concatenated counterparts, but
this effect was attenuated when ETEs were thought to be spaced.
Similarly, concatenated Finnish compounds were read faster when their
ETEs were also concatenated. These backward transfer effects are in line
with studies that show that processing behavior in L1 is affected by a
strong concurrent L2, even when the L1 is the native language as well as
the dominant community language