The perception of intermediate phonological relationships.

Abstract

It has been shown that pairs of segments that are allophonic in a language are perceived as being more similar than pairs that are contrastive in a language [Boomershine et al., (2008)]. There is also evidence that neutralized contrasts in a language are perceived as more similar than non‐neutralized contrasts [Hume and Johnson (2003)]. Third, there is evidence that phonological relationships should be defined along a continuum of predictability, rather than as a categorical distinction between “allophonic” and “contrastive” [Hall (2008)]. In combination, these facts predict that pairs of segments that fall along a cline of predictability of distribution should also fall along a cline of perceived similarity. This paper presents results of a perception experiment that tests this prediction by examining the perceived similarity of four pairs of sounds in German: (1) [t]‐[t∫], which is almost fully contrastive (unpredictably distributed); (2) [t]‐[d] and (3) [s]‐[∫], which are each partially contrastive (partially predictably distributed); and (4) [x]‐[ç], which is almost fully allophonic (completely predictably distributed). If the notion of a cline of predictability is correct, these four pairs will align themselves along a cline of similarity with [t]‐[t∫] being rated as the most distinct and [x]‐[ç] as the most similar.