Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Morrison, Geoffrey Stewart

Titel

Effects of L1 duration experience on Japanese and Spanish listeners' perception of English high front vowels

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2002

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Canadian English has two high front vowel phonemes (tense and lax) differing in spectral properties and duration, and, allophonically, Canadian English vowels are considerably longer when preceding voiced consonants than when preceding voiceless consonants. In contrast, Western Japanese has two high front vowel phonemes (long and short), traditionally described as differing in duration only, and allophonic duration differences due to post-vocalic consonant voicing are small. Japanese listeners' perception of the English and Japanese vowel contrasts was tested using multidimensional edited speech continua. The English continuum varied in terms of vowel spectral properties, vowel duration, consonant duration, and sentence duration. The Japanese continuum had the same duration properties but no spectral dimension. The Japanese listeners' English tense-lax and Japanese long-short categorical boundaries were found to be in the same location. Mexican Spanish listeners were also tested on the English continuum. Spanish has only one high front vowel and lacks any duration contrasts. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)