INTERSPEECH 2007 8th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association Antwerp, Belgium August 27-31, 2007

English and French Speakers' Perception of Voicing Distinctions in Non-Native Lateral Consonant Syllable Onsets

Catherine T. Best (1), Pierre A. Hallé (2), Jennifer S. Pardo (3)

(1) University of Western Sydney, Australia
(2) LPP, France
(3) Columbia University, USA

English and French listeners were tested on discrimination and open-response categorization of laryngeal contrasts in three non-native syllable onsets differing in gestural complexity, in particular in the phasing between laryngeal and supralaryngeal articulations. All onsets involved a lateral, which was combined with a coronal stop in two contrasts. Results support the view that syllable onsets are perceived as holistic articulatory patterns, in which voicing is more difficult to perceive separately as gestural complexity of the onset increases.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Best, Catherine T. / Hallé, Pierre A. / Pardo, Jennifer S. (2007): "English and French speakers' perception of voicing distinctions in non-native lateral consonant syllable onsets", In INTERSPEECH-2007, 2333-2336.