The perception of English vowels by native speakers of Spanish

Abstract

This study examined native Spanish speakers' perception of four English vowels (/i, ɪ, ɛ, æ/). In experiment 1, subjects used letters (〈i,e,a,o,u〉) to identify the vowels in beat, bit, bet, bat or responded “none” if they did not hear a Spanish vowel. The pattern of responses was unsurprising: mostly 〈i〉 for the English vowels /i/ and /ı/, 〈e〉 for the English /ɛ/s, and 〈a〉 for /æ/. Subjects who could speak English responded “none” significantly more often than Spanish monolinguals for all four words, suggesting they had begun to differentiate the English vowels from their nearest phonemic counterpart in Spanish. In experiment 2, subjects identified the members of continua which varied spectral quality (11 steps) and vowel duration (3 steps). Like native speakers, most Spanish subjects showed clear crossovers when identifying stimuli ranging from /bɛt/ to /bæt/, probably because the contiuum endpoints were identified with different Spanish vowels (viz., /e/ and /a/). Only six (30%) of the Spanish subjects, however, showed clear crossovers for a /bit/-to-/bɪt/ continuum, probably because the endpoints were identified with reference to a single Spanish vowel (/i/). The pattern of identification responses did not change systematically when stimuli differing in spectral quality were blocked on vowel duration in experiment 3. The results were interpreted to mean that even experienced Spanish speakers of English may not establish phonetic categories for “new” English vowels such as /ɪ/ and /æ/. [Work supported by NIH Grant 20963.]