Serbian affricates contrasts in foreign language perception investigated by means of a neurophysiological experiment
نویسندگان
چکیده
This study addresses the question to which extent phonetic contrasts of a foreign language are perceived more easily by speakers of a native language that shares similar phonetic categories. The focus lies on two post-alveolar and two palatal affricates of Serbian: [tʃ] (post-alveolar, voiceless), [ʨ] (alveolo-palatal, voiceless), [ʤ] (post-alveolar, voiced) and [ʥ] (alveolo-palatal, voiced). Swiss-German dialects have the post-alveolar voiceless affricate [tʃ] only, while the Rhaeto-Romance variety of Sursilvan has three different affricates, e.g. [tʃ], [ʨ] and [ʥ]. In an EEG experiment using a MMN paradigm, 15 Swiss-German and 15 Rhaeto-Romance speakers between 20-30 years were instructed to focus on reading a random text while not paying attention to the auditory stimuli. The hypothesis was a significant difference in processing between the two groups: SwissGermans would not be able to reliably distinguish the four Serbian affricates. Rhaeto-Romance speakers, on the other hand, are expected to be able to distinguish all four affricates. MMN curves revealed that both groups were able to perceive all phonetic contrasts. Swiss German speakers showed significantly higher amplitude peaks for four out of the twelve affricate contrasts. A significant group-effect was found to corroborate that Rhaeto-Romance speakers process the Serbian affricates differently than Swiss-German speakers do.
منابع مشابه
Phonetic contrasts in foreign language perception: a neuropsychological study on Serbian affricates
This study addresses the question to which extent phonetic contrasts of a foreign language are perceived more easily by speakers of a native language that shares similar phonetic categories. The focus lies on two postalveolar and two alveolo-palatal affricates of Serbian: [t�] (postalveolar, voiceless), [�] (alveolo-palatal, voiceless), [�] (postalveolar, voiced) and [�] (alveolo-palatal, voice...
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