2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Perception of Japanese segmentals by native speakers of English
| Project/Area Number |
18520338
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Ritsumeikan University |
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Principal Investigator |
NOZAWA Takeshi Ritsumeikan University, College of Economics, Professor (30198593)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
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| Keywords | Japanese segmentals / native English speakers / perception / vowels / mora nasal / mora obstruent / perceptual assimilation |
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| Research Abstract |
This study attempts to investigate perceived similarity of Japanese and English vowels and consonants by focusing on how native speakers of English perceive Japanese speech sounds. There are far fewer studies examining the perception of Japanese by native speakers of English than the other way around. This study consists of three parts: perception of mora nasal and obstruent, perceived similarity of Japanese and American English vowels, and perception of Japanese consonants by native English speakers. Four native speakers of Japanese produced mora obstruent /Q/ and mora nasal /N/ in /CVNCV/ and /CVQCV/ frames where the consonant after /N/ or /Q/ is a stop. The word final /CV/ was edited out, creating stimuli with the structure of /CVN/ and /CVQ/ . Native English and Japanese speakers heard the stimuli and identified the place of articulation of /N/ and /Q/ . The English speakers outperformed the Japanese speakers largely because in English phonemic contrasts exist among postvocalic nasals and among postvocalic stops whereas for Japanese speakers these variations are allophonic. In the second part, the two groups of subjects identified vowels in each other's languages in terms of their own native vowel categories. The English speakers chose the spectrally closest English vowel for each Japanese vowel, but Japanese speakers tended to rely on durational information as well. In another experiment, the Japanese speakers chose the closest English vowel for each Japanese vowel, and they tended to equate two-mora /ii/ and /uu/ with /i/ and /u/, and one-mora /i/ and /u/ with /I/ and /U/. In the third part, the English speakers heard Japanese words and non-words and transcribed them in English alphabet. Their answers did not necessarily agree with the common transcription of Japanese in English: The liquid, for instance, was more often identified as /I/ or /d/ than /r/.
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