Pitch Prominence Matters: Perception of Thai Tones by Seoul Korean and Kyungsang Korean Speakers

Abstract

This paper is a follow‐up analysis of a previous study on the perception of Thai tones by speakers of various L1s differing in pitch prominence. Varying degrees of pitch prominence (Mandarin, tone = high; Japanese, pitch accent = intermediate; English, word stress = reduced; Korean, none = low) globally resulted in the expected hierarchy of performance: Mandarin (M = 87% correct), Japanese (M = 77%), English and Korean (M = 67% for both). However, the equal performance between the English and Korean participants was not predicted. In this study, we examined whether differences in dialectal exposure among the Koreans influenced results. Three speakers of the Korean Kyungsang dialect featuring pitch accent performed with higher accuracy than Seoul dialect speakers, reaching comparable accuracy levels with the L1 Japanese speakers. Additionally, the Seoul dialect speakers performed less accurately than the L1 English speakers. Both results confirm the originally predicted hierarchy of performance.