Polka L
School of Human Communication Disorders, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
J Acoust Soc Am. 1991 Jun;89(6):2961-77. doi: 10.1121/1.400734.
Cross-language studies have shown that foreign consonant contrasts vary in the degree of perceptual difficulty which they present adult non-native listeners. Phonemic, phonetic, and acoustic factors have been considered important in accounting for this variability. These factors were examined by comparing English listeners' perception of the Hindi retroflex versus dental place-of-articulation contrast in four different voicing contexts: voiceless unaspirated, breathy voiced, voiceless aspirated, and prevoiced. Differences in perceptual difficulty of the four contrasts were predicted based on (1) phonemic status (the functional status of the contrast in the listeners' native phonology), (2) phonetic experience (as allophones or free variants), and (3) differences in acoustic salience related to voicing. Performance was not "nativelike" for any of the four contrasts; however, significant differences in perceptual difficulty among the four contrasts were evident. Perceptual differences were correlated with both acoustic salience of place cues and subjects' descriptions of their assimilation strategies.
跨语言研究表明，外语辅音对比在呈现给成年非母语听众时，其感知难度程度各异。音位、语音和声学因素被认为在解释这种变异性方面很重要。通过比较英语听众在四种不同发声语境（清不送气音、浊送气音、清送气音和预发声）中对印地语卷舌音与齿音发音部位对比的感知，对这些因素进行了研究。基于以下几点预测了四种对比在感知难度上的差异：（1）音位状态（该对比在听众母语音系中的功能状态），（2）语音经验（作为音位变体或自由变体），以及（3）与发声相关的声学显著性差异。对于这四种对比中的任何一种，表现都并非“像母语者一样”；然而，四种对比在感知难度上的显著差异是明显的。感知差异与位置线索的声学显著性以及受试者对其同化策略的描述都相关。
