Dental-to-velar perceptual assimilation: A cross-linguistic study of the perception of dental stop+/l/ clusters
| Number | 1484 |
|---|---|
| Year | 2007 |
| Drawer | 26 |
| Entry Date | 05/28/2008 |
| Authors | Hallé, P.A. & Best, C.T. |
| Contact | |
| Publication | Journal of Acoustical Society of America, V. 121:No. 5, pp. 2899-2914. |
| url | http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1484.pdf |
| Abstract | French listeners perceive illegal /tl/ and /dl/ clusters as legal /kl/ and /gl/, suggesting that /dl, tl/ undergo “phonotactic perceptual assimilation” to the phonetically most similar permissible clusters {Hallé et al., J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. (1998)]. However, without a comparison to native speakers of a language allowing initial /tl, dl/, other explanations remain open (e.g., universal phonetic biases). Experiment 1 compared native French and Hebrew listeners on perception of Hebrew /tl /-/kl /and /dl /-/gl /. On a language-specific phonotactics account, these contrasts should be difficult for listeners whose language disallows initial /tl, dl / while allowing /kl, gl / (French), but not for listeners whose language permits all four clusters (Hebrew). Indeed, French but not Hebrew listeners showed difficulty discrimination /tl /-/kl /, and tended to categorize the initial consonant of /tl / as /k/; analogous effects for /dl /-/gl / were weaker. Experiment 2 tested speakers of American English, which also disallows initial /tl, dl / but realizes stop-voicing differently than French or Hebrew, to examine possible contributions of language-specific phonetic settings. Their performance was similar to that of French listeners, though they had significantly greater difficulty with /dl - gl /. The results support the proposal of language-specific phonotactic perceptual assimilation, with modest contributions from language-specific phonetic settings. |
| Notes |
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