Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study
Various aspects of linguistic experience influence the way we segment, represent, and process speech signals. The Japanese phonetic and orthographic systems represent geminate consonants (double consonants, e.g. /ss/, /kk/) in a unique way compared to other languages: one abstract representation is...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01422/full |
| _version_ | 1819231190416097280 |
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| author | Makiko eSadakata Makiko eSadakata Mizuki eShingai Alex eBrandmeyer Alex eBrandmeyer Simone eSulpizio Simone eSulpizio Kaoru eSekiyama |
| author_facet | Makiko eSadakata Makiko eSadakata Mizuki eShingai Alex eBrandmeyer Alex eBrandmeyer Simone eSulpizio Simone eSulpizio Kaoru eSekiyama |
| author_sort | Makiko eSadakata |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Various aspects of linguistic experience influence the way we segment, represent, and process speech signals. The Japanese phonetic and orthographic systems represent geminate consonants (double consonants, e.g. /ss/, /kk/) in a unique way compared to other languages: one abstract representation is used to characterize the first part of geminate consonants despite the acoustic difference between two distinct realizations of geminate consonants (silence in the case of e.g. stop consonants and elongation in the case of fricative consonants). The current study tests this discrepancy between abstract representations and acoustic realizations influences how native speakers of Japanese perceive geminate consonants. The experiments used pseudo words containing either the geminate consonant /ss/ or a manipulated version in which the first part was replaced by silence /_s/. The sound /_s/ is acoustically similar to /ss/, yet does not occur in everyday speech. Japanese listeners demonstrated a bias to group these two types into the same category while Italian and Dutch listeners distinguished them. The results thus confirmed that distinguishing fricative geminate consonants with silence from those with sustained frication is not crucial for Japanese native listening. Based on this observation, we propose that native speakers of Japanese tend to segment geminated consonants into two parts and that the first portion of fricative geminates is perceptually similar to a silent duration. This representation is compatible with both Japanese orthography and phonology. Unlike previous studies that were inconclusive in how native speakers segment geminate consonants, our study demonstrated relatively strong effect of Japanese specific listening. Thus the current experimental methods may open up new lines of investigation into the relationship between development of phonological representation, orthography and speech perception. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T11:41:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3bc61f96af514d7bbb71f052f0714b10 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T11:41:01Z |
| publishDate | 2014-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-3bc61f96af514d7bbb71f052f0714b102022-12-21T17:48:29ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782014-12-01510.3389/fpsyg.2014.01422104398Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic studyMakiko eSadakata0Makiko eSadakata1Mizuki eShingai2Alex eBrandmeyer3Alex eBrandmeyer4Simone eSulpizio5Simone eSulpizio6Kaoru eSekiyama7Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognition, Radboud University NijmegenInstitute for Logic, Language and Computation, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsKumamoto University, Kumamoto, JapanDonders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Centre for Cognition, Radboud University NijmegenMax Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain SciencesUniversity of TrentoFondazione ONLUS Marica De VincenziKumamoto University, Kumamoto, JapanVarious aspects of linguistic experience influence the way we segment, represent, and process speech signals. The Japanese phonetic and orthographic systems represent geminate consonants (double consonants, e.g. /ss/, /kk/) in a unique way compared to other languages: one abstract representation is used to characterize the first part of geminate consonants despite the acoustic difference between two distinct realizations of geminate consonants (silence in the case of e.g. stop consonants and elongation in the case of fricative consonants). The current study tests this discrepancy between abstract representations and acoustic realizations influences how native speakers of Japanese perceive geminate consonants. The experiments used pseudo words containing either the geminate consonant /ss/ or a manipulated version in which the first part was replaced by silence /_s/. The sound /_s/ is acoustically similar to /ss/, yet does not occur in everyday speech. Japanese listeners demonstrated a bias to group these two types into the same category while Italian and Dutch listeners distinguished them. The results thus confirmed that distinguishing fricative geminate consonants with silence from those with sustained frication is not crucial for Japanese native listening. Based on this observation, we propose that native speakers of Japanese tend to segment geminated consonants into two parts and that the first portion of fricative geminates is perceptually similar to a silent duration. This representation is compatible with both Japanese orthography and phonology. Unlike previous studies that were inconclusive in how native speakers segment geminate consonants, our study demonstrated relatively strong effect of Japanese specific listening. Thus the current experimental methods may open up new lines of investigation into the relationship between development of phonological representation, orthography and speech perception.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01422/fullPerceptioncross-cultural comparisonorthographyconsonantgeminates |
| spellingShingle | Makiko eSadakata Makiko eSadakata Mizuki eShingai Alex eBrandmeyer Alex eBrandmeyer Simone eSulpizio Simone eSulpizio Kaoru eSekiyama Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study Frontiers in Psychology Perception cross-cultural comparison orthography consonant geminates |
| title | Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study |
| title_full | Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study |
| title_fullStr | Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study |
| title_short | Language Specific Listening of Japanese Geminate Consonants: Cross-linguistic study |
| title_sort | language specific listening of japanese geminate consonants cross linguistic study |
| topic | Perception cross-cultural comparison orthography consonant geminates |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01422/full |
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