Emotional content influences lexical processing, yet bilingual speakers often exhibit reduced emotional resonance in a second language (L2). The present study examined whether this attenuation is uniform or varies across emotional categories. Native (L1) and non-native (L2) English speakers (N = 261) completed a lexical decision task using words normed for valence, arousal, and five discrete emotions. Emotional effects were robust in L1 but markedly reduced in L2. Critically, discrete emotion categories accounted for performance better than dimensional valence and arousal. L2 attenuation was selective rather than global: happiness facilitated and disgust interfered with processing in L1, but these effects were absent in L2, whereas fear showed comparable effects across groups and anger and sadness showed minimal effects. Individual differences in L2 experience (age of acquisition, proficiency, and language use) modulated these patterns in an emotion-specific manner. These findings challenge accounts of uniform emotional blunting in L2 and instead support a view in which emotional meaning is differentially encoded across languages and dynamically shaped by experience.