Non-native perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives

Abstract

Differences in perception and production of non-native contrasts are thought to be driven by the relationship between sound inventories of the native and target languages (Best, McRoberts, and Goodell, 2001). The current study examines non-native perception and production of sibilant fricatives and affricates in Basque. Basque has a 3-way place contrast for sibilant fricatives and affricates (apico-alveolar /s/ and /ts/, lamino-alveolar /s/ and /ts/, and post-alveolar /∫/ and /t∫/). In contrast, /s/ and /t∫/ are the only voiceless sibilants that Spanish has in this region. The results suggest that in the case of Basque sibilant phonemes, similarity to an existing contrast (i.e., fricative-to-affricate contrasts) results in better perception and production. Native Spanish speakers performed better on discrimination and repetition of the /s/ - /ts/ contrast than the /s/ - /s/ or /s/ - /∫/ contrasts. Spanish speakers are able to leverage their ability to discriminate and produce /s/ and /t∫/ in their native language to perceive and produce a new contrast in Basque, even though the contrast in Spanish differs by two features, rather than just one as in Basque. However, the lack of a contrast between sibilant fricatives prevents them from discriminating or producing the fricative-to-fricative contrasts.