Perception of Fricatives by Dutch and English Speakers

Abstract

Two speech perception experiments explored physical and linguistic bases of similarity. Because phonological features are grounded in similarity, these experiments were thus an exploration of bases of distinctive features. Experiment 1 found that Dutch listeners rated (s) and () as more similar to each other than did American English listeners. We attributed this to a pattern of alternation in Dutch phonology involving these sounds. Experiment 1 also found that Dutch listeners rated () and (s), and () and () as more similar to each other than did American English listeners. We attributed this to lack of () in Dutch inventory of native sounds. Experiment 2 found that Dutch and American English listeners did not signficantly differ from each other in a speeded discrimination task with same stimuli as experiment 1. Reaction times in experiment 2 were highly correlated with rating data of experiment 1 (r = -.86 to -.96) indicating that general pattern of response in experiment 1 was based on auditory similarity, with language-specific effects superimposed on general pattern. We conclude that similarity, a base of phonological features, is comprised of three components: (1) auditory similarity, (2) inventory, and (3) language- specific patterns of alternation. This is a paper about similarity. By phonetic we mean a psychological phenomenon - something like the subjective experience of linguistic sound - which is no doubt related to physically measureable acoustic, visual, or motor aspects of speech sounds; but which also may be derived from listener's experience of sounds of language. We will argue on basis of data from two cross-linguistic speech perception experiments, that similarity is a product both of physical aspects of sounds and of linguistic patterning of sounds. This research is relevant to distinctive feature theory because phonological features are grounded in similarity. Phonetic similarity is relevant in poetic use of language to determine near-rhymes (Steriade, 2003), sound change is influenced by perceptibility of sounds involved in change (Hume & Johnson, 2001), and synchronic phonological patterns