Vietnamese monophthong vowel production by native speakers and American adult learners

Abstract

This study provides new native speaker data regarding the vowel space and duration contrasts of Vietnamese monophthongs. These data add to existing empirical accounts and raise questions about descriptions aimed at adult language learners. In addition, specific acoustic measures target difficulties that English‐speaking adults encounter when producing Vietnamese vowels. These measures include the rounding distinction for back vowels, height distinction for central vowels, and duration distinction between short and long vowels. Results show that adult learners exhibit greater variability and overall less accurate production than native speakers for the high‐back unrounded vowel u', with slightly better performance for the mid‐back unrounded vowel o', perhaps because it is similar to English / Λ /. Additionally, these learners demonstrate varying levels of success with regard to the production of central vowel height but generally fail to distinguish the two vowel duration categories exhibited by native speakers.