Haskins Publications

Number	252
Year	1978
Drawer	5
Entry Date	06/03/1999
Authors	Lukatela, G., Savic, M., Gligorijevic, B., Ognjenovic, P., & Turvey, M. T.
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Publication	Language and Speech, 21, 142-165.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0252.pdf
Abstract	Serbo-Croatian is written in two alphabets: Roman & Cyrillic. Most of the alphabet characters are unique to one or the other alphabet. There are, however, some shared characters, some receiving the same reading in both alphabets, while some do not. Letter strings were constructed, all of which could be given a phonological interpretation in Roman, but only some of which could be given a phonological interpretation in Cyrillic. Some strings had a lexical entry in Roman, some in Cyrillic, some had a lexical entry - either the same or different - in both alphabets, & some had no lexical entry in either. In three experiments (N = 20, 22, & 40 Yugoslav U students), Ss reading in the Roman alphabet were required to decide as rapidly as possible whether a given letter string was a word. Overall results suggest that in the lexical decision task, Serbo-Croatian letter strings (where structure permits) receive two simultaneous phonological interpretations. Whether or not this phonological bivalence implies lexical decision in the assigned alphabet mode depends on whether the letter string has a lexical entry in at least one alphabet.
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