Listeners do hear sounds, not tongues.

Abstract

The paper first distinguishes the two perceptual theories, the motor theory and the theory of direct perception, that nearly agree in the claim that listeners to speech perceive vocal tract gestures. Next it justifies the claim of the direct realist theory that listeners perceive gestures and consider some experimental evidence in its favor. Finally it addresses evidence and arguments judged by Ohala to disconfirm the theory. The argument is made that most of the evidence put forward by Ohala is irrelevant to a distinction between theories that we perceive acoustic signals and theories that we perceive gestures. The arguments are inaccurate or highly selective in the data upon which they draw.