Effects of consonant context on the perception of French vowels

Abstract

American English vowels have been found to be more accurately identified in consonantal context than in isolation. One might, however, expect different results for French because phonological and phonetic characteristics of French vowels are different from those of English. Native French listeners identified stressed oral vowels produced by native speakers in /t/-vowel and isolated vowel contexts more accurately than vowels produced in vowel-/t/ and /t/-vowel-/t/ contexts. In categorial discrimination, native French, non-native speakers of French, and non-speakers of French perceived isolated French vowels more accurately than vowels in TVT context, arguing against phonological appropriateness as the determinant of context effect differences between languages. American non-native speakers of French and non-speakers of French were significantly less accurate than native French in identification and discrimination of French vowels in all contexts, especially front rounded vowels which do not occur in English. Acoustical analyses of the French vowels showed less diphthongization than for English vowels in the same syllabic contexts, making vowel “targets” more reliable as sources of information for French vowel identity.