Cross‐language perception of a place‐of‐articulation contrast: The influence of nonspecific linguistic experience

Abstract

There is some debate whether the effects of experience on perception of nonnative speech contrasts reflect psychoacoustic, phonetic, or phonemic factors. The present study addresses this issue by comparing the performance of native English speakers and native speakers of Farsi (Persian) on perceptual categorization of ejective uvular and velar stops in Thompson (a North American Indian language). While the ejective manner class is not represented in the phonetic inventory of either English or Farsi, the uvular‐velar distinction has a different phonological status in the two languages. In English, the uvular‐velar place contrast is not a phonemic distinction. In Farsi, this place distinction is phonemic for voiced (nonejective) stops. To evaluate the effect of this phonological status difference, perceptual categorization of multiple natural exemplars of Thompson /k/ and /q/ (produced in the same vowel context) was assessed in both language groups. Subjects completed both an identification test and a name...