Abstract
Three experiments, in which Japanese listeners detected Japanese words embedded in nonsense sequences, examined the perceptual consequences of vowel devoicing in that language. Since vowelless sequences disrupt speech segmentation [Norris et al. (1997). Cognit. Psychol. 34, 191ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“243], devoicing is potentially problematic for perception. Words in initial position in nonsense sequences were detected more easily when followed by a sequence containing a vowel than by a vowelless segment (with or without further context), and vowelless segments that were potential devoicing environments were no easier than those not allowing devoicing. Thus asa, ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"morning,ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ was easier in asau or asazu than in all of asap, asapdo, asaf, or asafte, despite the fact that the /f/ in the latter two is a possible realization of fu, with devoiced [u]. Japanese listeners thus do not treat devoicing contexts as if they always contain vowels. Words in final position in nonsense sequences, however, produced a different pattern: here, preceding vowelless contexts allowing devoicing impeded word detection less strongly (so, sake was detected less accurately, but not less rapidly, in nyaksakeââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Âpossibly arising from nyakusakeââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Âthan in nyagusake). This is consistent with listeners treating consonant sequences as potential realizations of parts of existing lexical candidates wherever possible.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1693-1703 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |
Volume | 125 |
Issue number | 3 |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |
Keywords
- Japanese language
- phonetics
- pronunciation
- speech
- speech perception
- vowels