Processing reduced speech across languages and dialects

Abstract

Normal, spontaneous speech utilizes many reduced forms. Consonants in spontaneous speech frequently have a different manner or voicing than would be expected in clear speech (e.g. /d/ and /ŋ/ in “you doing” both being realized as glides or /dȝ/ in “just” as a fricative), and near or complete deletions are also common (e.g. the flap in “a little”). Thus, listeners encounter and must process such pronunciations frequently. When speakers and listeners do not share the same dialect or native language, such reductions may hinder processing more than for native listeners of the same dialect. The current work reports a lexical decision experiment comparing listeners’ processing of reduced vs. careful stops (e.g. /g/ in”baggy” pronounced as an approximant or as a stop), by several groups of listeners. Results show that listeners from both Arizona and Alberta, Canada can recognize speech by an Arizona speaker with reduced stops, but they recognize the words more easily when stops are clearly articulated. Speech style of the preceding frame sentence has little effect, suggesting that both groups can process the stops regardless of whether surrounding context leads them to expect reduced stops. Additional data from second-language learners and bilingual listeners is currently being collected.