Compensation for phonological assimilation can be triggered by nonspeech sounds

Abstract

Several previous experiments have shown that phonological assimilations are compensated for perceptually by a context-sensitive mechanism. For instance, the Hungarian assimilated form ‘‘bar’’ of the word ‘‘bal’’ (‘‘left’’) is recognized as such only if it occurs in a context that allows assimilation (i.e., ‘‘balrol’’ assimilated to ‘‘barrol,’’ ‘‘from the left’’), but not in other contexts (*‘‘barnal’’). This ‘‘compensation for assimilation’’ is independent of language experience: Similar results were found with Hungarian and Dutch listeners [Mitterer et al., Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (2003)]. This suggests that an auditory mechanism underlies compensation. Nonspeech analogs of the phonetic contexts ‘‘nal’’ and ‘‘rol’’ should therefore trigger similar context effects as speech sounds: Three pairs of nonspeech analogs were played after syllables from a ‘‘bal’’-to-‘‘bar’’ continuum: First, a broadband noise was used with-analog to the trill in ‘‘rol’’—or without-analog to the nasal in ‘‘nal’’—amplitude modulation (AM) at the onset. Second, the same AM manipulation was applied to a 400-Hz tone. Third, frequency modulation replaced the AM of the 400-Hz tone. In each case, the nonspeech sounds had the same effect on identification and discrimination performance as the speech sounds.