The production of Persian rhotics by native Mandarin speakers

This study investigates the non-native production of rhotics by Mandarin speakers learning Persian as L3 and it compares the results with that of native speakers. In the light of the findings, one of the predictions made by the Speech Learning Model was tested. According to this model, speech acquisition happens at a position-sensitive allophonic level. A series of informal /casual interviews were conducted to collect the data. This resulted in 1252 tokens used for the analysis. The results showed that all speakers produce the allophonic variant trill which exists in Persian but is absent in both Mandarin and English as their L1 and L2. However, their contextual distribution did not show the same pattern as the native speakers. It is suggested that extra-linguistic factors should be also taken into account in order to get a fuller picture of non-native allophonic production.