TY - JOUR
T1 - Language specificity in phonetic cue weighting
T2 - Monolingual and bilingual perception of the stop voicing contrast in english and Spanish
AU - Schertz, Jessamyn
AU - Carbonell, Kathy
AU - Lotto, Andrew J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by NSFDDRIG grant #BCS-1324668
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Miquel Simonet and Natasha Warner for helpful discussion on previous versions of the work on monolinguals, and to Yamile Díaz for help with stimulus creation and pilot participant running. We are grateful to Carolyn O’Meara and the Seminario de Lenguas Indígenas at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México for providing space to run the experiments. Finally, thanks to Sally Ríos Kuri (Mexico) and Nicole DelCampo (Florida) for help running the experiments. This work was supported by NSF DDRIG grant #BCS-1324668.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel.
PY - 2020/4/1
Y1 - 2020/4/1
N2 - Background/Aims: This work examines the perception of the stop voicing contrast in Spanish and English along four acoustic dimensions, comparing monolingual and bilingual listeners. Our primary goals are to test the extent to which cue-weighting strategies are language-specific in monolinguals, and whether this language specificity extends to bilingual listeners. Methods: Participants categorized sounds varying in voice onset time (VOT, the primary cue to the contrast) and three secondary cues: fundamental frequency at vowel onset, first formant (F1) onset frequency, and stop closure duration. Listeners heard acoustically identical target stimuli, within language-specific carrier phrases, in English and Spanish modes. Results: While all listener groups used all cues, monolingual English listeners relied more on F1, and less on closure duration, than monolingual Spanish listeners, indicating language specificity in cue use. Early bilingual listeners used the three secondary cues similarly in English and Spanish, despite showing language-specific VOT boundaries. Conclusion: While our findings reinforce previous work demonstrating language-specific phonetic representations in bilinguals in terms of VOT boundary, they suggest that this specificity may not extend straightforwardly to cue-weighting strategies.
AB - Background/Aims: This work examines the perception of the stop voicing contrast in Spanish and English along four acoustic dimensions, comparing monolingual and bilingual listeners. Our primary goals are to test the extent to which cue-weighting strategies are language-specific in monolinguals, and whether this language specificity extends to bilingual listeners. Methods: Participants categorized sounds varying in voice onset time (VOT, the primary cue to the contrast) and three secondary cues: fundamental frequency at vowel onset, first formant (F1) onset frequency, and stop closure duration. Listeners heard acoustically identical target stimuli, within language-specific carrier phrases, in English and Spanish modes. Results: While all listener groups used all cues, monolingual English listeners relied more on F1, and less on closure duration, than monolingual Spanish listeners, indicating language specificity in cue use. Early bilingual listeners used the three secondary cues similarly in English and Spanish, despite showing language-specific VOT boundaries. Conclusion: While our findings reinforce previous work demonstrating language-specific phonetic representations in bilinguals in terms of VOT boundary, they suggest that this specificity may not extend straightforwardly to cue-weighting strategies.
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U2 - 10.1159/000497278
DO - 10.1159/000497278
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064913418
SN - 0031-8388
VL - 77
SP - 186
EP - 208
JO - Phonetica
JF - Phonetica
IS - 3
ER -