Effects of First Language Background and Learning Experience in Perceiving Mandarin Lexical Tones: Learners and Nonlearners From English- and Japanese-Speaking Backgrounds.

Purpose: This research compared individuals from two first language (L1) backgrounds (English and Japanese) to determine how they may differ in their perception of Mandarin tones (Tones 1 vs. 2 [T1-T2], Tones 1 vs. 3 [T1-T3], Tones 1 vs.

Lexical representation of Mandarin tones by non-tonal second-language learners.

The present study examined whether second language (L2) learners can lexically encode the tonal contrasts that do not occur in their native language. Advanced Korean learners of Mandarin performed a lexical decision task with medium-term repetition priming. The repeated words were either identical or interchanged with confusable tones.

The Perception of Mandarin Lexical Tones by Native Speakers of Burmese.

This study examines the perception of Mandarin lexical tones by native speakers of Burmese who use lexical tones in their first language (L1) but are naïve to Mandarin. Unlike Mandarin tones, which are primarily cued by pitch, Burmese tones are cued by phonation type as well as pitch. The question of interest is whether Burmese listeners can utilize their L1 experience in processing unfamiliar Mandarin tones.

Cross-language perception of Japanese vowel length contrasts: comparison of listeners from different first language backgrounds.

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to compare the perception of Japanese vowel length contrasts by 4 groups of listeners who differed in their familiarity with length contrasts in their first language (L1; i.e., American English, Italian, Japanese, and Thai).

The perception of Arabic and Japanese short and long vowels by native speakers of Arabic, Japanese, and Persian.

This study examines the perception of short and long vowels in Arabic and Japanese by three groups of listeners differing in their first languages (L1): Arabic, Japanese, and Persian. While Persian uses the same alphabet as Arabic and Iranian students learn Arabic in school, the two languages are typologically unrelated. Further, unlike Arabic or Japanese, vowel length may no longer be contrastive in modern Persian.

Effects of speaking rate and vowel length on formant frequency displacement in Japanese.

This study examined effects of phonemic vowel length and speaking rate, two factors that affect vowel duration, on the first and second formants of all vowels in Japanese. The aim was to delineate the aspects of formant displacement that are governed by the physiological proclivity of vowel production shared across languages, and the aspects that reveal language-specific phenomena. Acoustic analysis revealed that the phonemic long vowels occupied a more peripheral portion of the F1 x F2 vowel space than the phonemic short vowels (effect of vowel length), but effects of speaking rate were less clear.

Release bursts in English word-final voiceless stops produced by native English and Korean adults and children.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the acquisition of statistical properties of a second language (L2). Stop consonants are permitted in word-final position in both English and Korean, but they are variably released in English and invariably unreleased in Korean. Native Korean (K) adults and children living in North America and age-matched native English (E) speakers repeated English words ending in released tokens of /t/ and /k/ at two times separated by 1.