Haskins Publications

Number	1292
Year	2003
Drawer	24
Entry Date	12/17/2007
Authors	Best, C.T., Traill, A., Carter, A., Harrison, K.D. & Faber, A.
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Publication	Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Barcelona, Spain. August 3-9, 2003 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, pp. 853-856.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1292.pdf
Abstract	Many, thought not all, nonnative phonological contrasts pose discrimination difficulties. The Perceptual Assimilation Model attributes discrimination differences to listeners’ assimilation of nonnative phones to their native phonologies, which vary across languages. We examined perception of two !Xóõ click contrasts by American English speakers and speakers of Isizulu and Sesotho, Africans should assimilate !Xóõ clicks to native ones and discriminate accordingly; Americans should perceive them as non-speeech and discriminate them well. Isizulu’s click system is richer than Sesotho’s, so Isizulu speakers should perform better on at least one contrast. Americans should excel on contrasts that Africans assimilate to a single click. As predicted, Isizulu listeners assimilated !Xóõ clicks to native clicks most often, Americans heard nonspeech most often. Sesotho listeners were poorest on one contrast they had difficulty categorizing. Americans excelled on the other, which the Africans assimilated to a single click.
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