The perception and processing of foreign-accented speech: Contributions of various phonetic parameters

Abstract

This research investigates the relative importance of various parameters contributing to the perception and processing of foreign accented speech. A native Spanish speaker of fluent heavily English read phrases designed to elicit prosodic and segmental deviations from American English. Parameters investigated were: prosodic (phrasal intonation and lexical stress); vowel segmental (vowel epenthesis, tense-laxness, reduction); consonant segmental [VOT, final /s/ deletion, fricative voicing (/z–s/), manner (š–č)]. English-speaking listeners rated extent of foreign accent of the Spanish phrases as actually produced and as edited by computer. Results showed that listeners are sensitive to manipulations, even those involving a brief portion (some as short as 60 ms) of a 3-s phrase, if the manipulation involves a phonological rather than subhonemic category. Results of a word monitoring experiment on the same stimuli will be discussed in terms of the contribution to perception and processing of subphonemic versus phonological and segmental versus prosodic parameters. [Work supported by NIH.]