!Xóõ click perception by English, Isizulu, and Sesotho listeners

![CDATA[Many, though not all, non-native phonological contrasts pose discrimination difficulties. The Perceptual Assimilation Model attributes discrimination differences to listeners' assimilations of non-native 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, African click languages that lack the target contrasts. The Africans should assimilate !Xóõ clicks to native ones and discriminate accordingly; Americans should perceive them as non-speech 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 non-speech 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.]]