The Perception of Geminate Stops by L1 English Learners of Japanese
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Abstract
The present study investigated the perception of Japanese geminate stops [pp, tt, kk] by L1 English learners of Japanese at the beginning to intermediate level in comparison with native Japanese speakers. The two groups listened to the stimuli in the form of CVCV, in which the acoustic duration of the second consonant was manipulated into ten levels, to judge if the second C is singleton or geminate. The duration of the first syllable and place of articulation of the second consonant were controlled as additional variables.
The results revealed that, although the learners identification function approached that of the native level, they identified the stimuli of 130-250 ms closure duration with a geminate at a higher percent-frequency than the Japanese speakers did. Moreover, unlike the Japanese speakers, the learners were not sensitive to place of articulation of the consonants and the duration of the preceding syllable when identifying the stimuli. This suggests that the learners have not established the phonetic criteria well enough to consistently react to each stimulus with varied features, and they have not reached native-like timing management of the singleton/geminate consonant in accordance with the duration of the preceding syllable.
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