The more the better? Effects of L1 tonal density and typology on the perception of non-native tones

Abstract

This study investigates the effects of L1 tonal density and typology on naïve listeners’ perception of L2 Cantonese tones and pitch-equivalent pure tones. Native speakers of two canonical tone languages (Vietnamese and Mandarin) and a pitch-accent language (Japanese) with varying degrees of tonal density were recruited as listeners in a discrimination task followed by a perceptual assimilation task. Results implied that Mandarin listeners with a sparser tone inventory exhibited significantly better performance than Vietnamese listeners, suggesting that denser tonality in L1 did not facilitate or even interfere with L2 tone perception. Furthermore, both groups of canonical tone listeners processed pitch contours in a domain-general manner, with comparable performance in the perception of lexical tones and pure tones. However, Japanese listeners of the pitch-accent language perceived pure tones better than lexical tones, showing a domain-specific mechanism. These findings suggest that both L1 tonal density and typology may modulate the perception of non-native tones.