Lexical Retuning Targets Features

Previous work has shown that listeners systematically "retune" their categorical boundaries when presented with real-word tokens containing an ambiguous segment. There have been multiple previous studies on this lexically-guided retuning (Eisner and Mc-Queen 2005; McQueen et al. 2006; Norris et al. 2003), but the level of representation that retuning targets is not entirely clear. In this paper, we show that retuning occurs at the level of features for fricatives. Given that previous research has argued similarly for stops (Kraljic & Samuel 2006), we suggest that retuning generally targets featural representations

Russian assimilatory palatalization is incomplete neutralization

Incomplete neutralization refers to phonetic traces of underlying contrasts in phonologically neutralizing contexts. The present study examines one such context: Russian assimilatory palatalization in C+j sequences. Russian contrasts plain and palatalized consonants, with the plain consonants having a secondary articulation involving retraction of the tongue dorsum (velarization/uvularization). However, Russian also has stop-glide sequences that form near-minimal pairs with palatalized stops. In the environment preceding palatal glides, the contrast between palatalized and plain consonants is neutralized, due to the palatalization of the plain stop (assimilatory palatalization). The purpose of the study is to explore whether the neutralization is complete. To do so, we conducted an electromagnetic articulography (EMA) experiment examining temporal coordination and the spatial position of the tongue body in underlyingly palatalized consonants and those derived from assimilatory palatalization. Articulatory results from four native speakers of Russian revealed that gestures in both conditions are coordinated as complex segments, i.e., they are palatalized consonants. However, there are differences across conditions consistent with the residual presence of a tongue dorsum retraction gesture in the plain obstruents. We conclude that neutralization of the plain-palatal contrast in Russian is incomplete; consonants in the assimilatory palatalization condition exhibit inter-gestural coordination characteristic of palatalized consonants along with residual evidence of an underlying tongue dorsum retraction (velarization/uvularization) gesture

Sonority bias in Rugao di-syllabic syllable contraction

Two analyses, vowel sonority and the linear order of pre-contraction vowels, have been proposed to account for the vowel selection between two competing vowels in Chinese syllable contraction. An experiment was run to test whether sonority and/or linear order bias the vowel selection in Rugao syllable contraction. Our results confirmed the role of vowel sonority, and did not present supporting evidence for the linear order analysis. Sonority hierarchies along the dimensions of both height and centrality exhibit the same consistent and robust pattern, providing a new perspective to look at competing vowels in vowel-related phonological processes

Temporal Coordination and Sonority of Jazani Arabic Word-Initial Clusters

Previous research on the organization of syllable-structure, relying on the timing of the articulators suggests that though both English and Moroccan Arabic have word-initial consonant clusters, Moroccan Arabic does not have complex onsets, while English does (Browman and Goldstein, 1988; Byrd, 1995; Shaw et al., 2011). However, typically, such research employs expensive articulatory equipment. This limits the research to those who have access to such technology. Here, we advocate the use of the acoustic measurements with carefully selected stimuli. We conducted an experiment on 7 native speakers of Jazani Arabic, who produced 6 repetitions of 78 target words (34 real, 44 nonce), which varied in the number of onset consonant (C1, C2), and the sonority profiles. Similarly, to Moroccan Arabic, the results show that onset consonant alignments in Jazani Arabic are consistent with the simplex onset organization. Unlike Italian, the temporal pattern of Jazani Arabic remained the same, as simplex onsets across the sonority profiles. The study shows the effectiveness of acoustic measurements as a tool to understand syllabic organization, through studying the temporal co-ordination patterns

Excrescent stops in American English

This study investigates whether excrescence is phonological epenthesis or articulatory overlap by investigating whether a prosodic domain boundary intervening between the nasal and the fricative affects insertion. Articulatory overlap effects are expected to remain constant across the board, whereas phonological epenthesis is expected to be targeted for domain-final lengthening. The duration results are that neither excrescence nor underlying segments are affected by domain-final lengthening, but excrescent closure is significantly shorter than underlying closure. The short segments support an articulatory overlap hypothesis, but the lack of final lengthening opens up new questions for further research

Illusory vowels in perceptual epenthesis: The role of phonological alternations

Listeners often perceive illusory vowels when presented with consonant sequences that violate phonotactic constraints in their language. Previous research suggests that the phenomenon motivates speech-perception models that incorporate surface phonotactic information and the acoustics of the speech tokens. In this article, inspired by Bayesian models of speech perception, we claim that the listener attempts to identify target phonemic representations during perception. This predicts that the phenomenon of perceptual illusions will be modulated not only by surface phonotactics and the acoustics of the speech tokens, but also by the phonological alternations of a language. We present the results of three experiments (an AX task, an ABX task and an identification task) with native Korean listeners, and native English listeners as a control group, showing that Korean listeners perceive different sets of illusory vowels in different phonological contexts, in accordance with the phonological processes of vowel deletion and palatalisation in the language

The Role of Phrasal Phonology in Speech Perception: What Perceptual Epenthesis Shows Us

Recent research using the phenomenon of illusory vowels has raised our awareness of the extent to which speech perception is modulated by the listener\u27s native-language phonological knowledge. However, most of the focus has been limited to word-level phonological knowledge. In this article, we suggest that the perceptual system recruits segmental phonological knowledge that makes crucial reference to prosodic domains far beyond the word-level. We report the results from three identification experiments on Korean and American English participants. In accordance with their native-language phonotactic constraints at the level of the Intonational Phrase, Korean listeners unlike American English listeners hear more illusory vowels in stimuli containing the sequence of voiced stops followed by nasal consonants (e.g. [eɡma]) than those containing voiceless stops followed by nasal consonants (e.g. [ekma]). The results are interpreted as support for the view that speech perception makes crucial reference to the concept of reverse inference