An examination of the different ways that non-native phones may be perceptually assimilated as uncategorized

Mona M Faris; Catherine T Best; Michael D Tyler

doi:10.1121/1.4939608

An examination of the different ways that non-native phones may be perceptually assimilated as uncategorized

J Acoust Soc Am. 2016 Jan;139(1):EL1-5. doi: 10.1121/1.4939608.

Authors

Mona M Faris¹, Catherine T Best², Michael D Tyler³

Affiliations

¹ The MARCS Institute, Bankstown Campus, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, New South Wales 2751, Australia m.faris@westernsydney.edu.au.
² School of Humanities and Communication Arts, Bankstown Campus, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, New South Wales 2751, Australia c.best@westernsydney.edu.au.
³ School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Bankstown Campus, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, New South Wales 2751, Australia m.tyler@westernsydney.edu.au.

PMID: 26827050
DOI: 10.1121/1.4939608

Abstract

This study examined three ways that perception of non-native phones may be uncategorized relative to native (L1) categories: focalized (predominantly similar to a single L1 category), clustered (similar to > 2 L1 categories), and dispersed (not similar to any L1 categories). In an online study, Egyptian Arabic speakers residing in Egypt categorized and rated all Australian English vowels. Evidence was found to support focalized, clustered, and dispersed uncategorized assimilations. Second-language (L2) category formation for uncategorized assimilations is predicted to depend upon the degree of perceptual overlap between the sets of L1 categories listeners use in assimilating each phone within an L2 contrast.