Perception of ATR contrasts by Akan speakers: a case of perceptual near-merger

Despite many acoustic, articulatory and phonological studies of Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) vowel contrasts harmony, the perception ATR by speakers languages with distinctions are lacking. This paper explores how vowels which differ for or height, both, distinguished Akan, a Kwa language Ghana. We examine whether contrastive status impacts it is driven acoustic similarity. Results from two experiments reveal that only well distinguished, even those in an allophonic relationship. Yet, both height features, but acoustically similar, poorly perceived. suggest these constitute case perceptual near-merger.