Identifying /l/ and /n/ in English by multi-dialectal speakers of Mandarin

Abstract

Native speakers of Standard Mandarin are mostly proficient in their local dialects which were acquired at home before or parallel to the Standard Mandarin. The Mandarin dialects that share general grammar mainly differ in their phonological features. A well-known example is the contrast of /l/ and /n/, which is not fully maintained or completely absent in many southern Mandarin dialects. This study investigated how perception of the English consonantal contrast may be influenced by experience in Mandarin dialects with varying phonemic status and distribution of the sounds. We examined the identification of the two consonants in various phonetic environments by Chinese bi-dialectal speakers who were all advanced learners of English-as-a-foreign-language. Results confirmed predicted perceptual difficulties across dialect groups as well as revealed other phonetic factors affecting the perceptual accuracy.