The perception of morae in long vowels: comparison among Japanese, Korean and English speakers

Abstract

There are three kinds of Tokushuhaku (the specific timing morae) in the Japanese language such as the moraic nasal, the non-nasal consonant and the long vowel. Even though Japanese native speakers can perceive them perfectly, it is difficult for Japanese learners from abroad to perceive and produce them. To make it more efficient for Japanese learners to acquire them, one needs to investigate how Japanese native speakers perceive Tokushuhaku. The study examines the perception of a more or morae of Japanese language specifically in the long vowel. Fujisaki and Sugito (1977) have assumed that duration contrasts alone are involved in perception. However, we hypothesize that the accentual change in the midst of a long vowel would mark the boundary between the morae and would affect the perception of morae by native speakers of standard Japanese. Based on the hypothesis three kinds of perception tests with computer-edited sound stimuli were given to native Japanese, Korean and English speakers. The results of these tests suggest that native Japanese speakers count the number of morae not only by the duration of vowels, but also by the accentual change which indicates the boundary between morae. On the other hand, non-native speakers count the number of morae only by the duration of vowels.