Perceptual effects in final cluster reduction patterns

Abstract

This study investigates word final deletion patterns in English loanword adaptations and in various other phonological data. By comparing the loanword forms in several languages, preference scales for retention of consonants (covert in the native words) emerged. The most robust pattern is the preference for voiceless plosives (T) over voiced ones (D) in the postnasal context (N_#). The asymmetric deletion patterns are predicted by the relative acoustic and auditory saliency of the plosives in the postsonorant context. Saliency predicts that D will be always deleted before T. Similar patterns of cluster reduction are found in productive synchronic alternations, in the course of language evolution, and also in child acquisition data. It is argued that the perceptibility scales are universally defined through auditory perception. However, auditory perception alone does not determine directly the phonological patterns. Instead, the perceptibility scales are encoded into the grammatical component of each language. This is shown by distinct yet implicationally congruent reduction patterns in loanwords across languages.