The perception of the English alveolar-velar nasal coda contrast by monolingual versus bilingual Chinese speakers

Wu, Minghui; Sloos, Marjoleine

doi:10.1109/iscslp.2016.7918401

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Effects of the first language (L1) on incomplete acquisition of sound contrasts in a second language are ubiquitous; here we summarize findings that are specific to nasal codas. Increased experience with Chinese varieties which lack a coda nasal contrast has been shown to reduce listeners' perceptual sensitivity to the coda /n/-/ŋ/ contrast in English (Wu et al, 2016) and Standard Chinese (Wang et al, 2018). Likewise, Burmese speakers who learned Mandarin as an L2 are less sensitive in discriminating Mandarin coda nasals (Lai, 2008), in keeping with Burmese having only non-contrastive coda nasality like Shanghainese (Green, 2005).…”

Section: Coda Nasals In Shanghai Mandarin and Shanghainesementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other modern Chinese varieties, mergers or positional neutralizations of /n/ and /ŋ/ are frequently observed. Interference from an L1 that lacks the relevant place contrast is the most commonly proposed cause for these mergers of nasal coda place in varieties of Chinese commonly spoken as an L2 (Lai, 2008;Chen & Guion-Anderson, 2011;Luo, 2015;Wu, Sloos, & van de Weijer, 2016;Wang, Cui, & Chen, 2018). However, loss of the nasal coda place contrast in modern Chinese, and the specific places of articulation which are favored in the merged or neutralized codas, can also be attributed to various substantive factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nasal coda neutralization in Shanghai Mandarin: Articulatory and perceptual evidence

Faytak

Liu

Sundara

2020

Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology

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Shanghai Mandarin is reported to neutralize /n/ and /ŋ/ after non-low vowels, a change also reported for other varieties of Chinese. However, the place of articulation of the resulting nasal is unclear. We used production and perception experiments to determine the contexts which condition neutralization and the place of articulation of the resulting nasal. Analysis of ultrasound data using a dimensionality reduction technique revealed that neutralization in production was dependent on the height of the preceding vowel: The highest vowel /i/ conditioned a consistent, non-structure-preserving neutralization to a fronted velar or palatal nasal; the mid vowel /ə/ conditioned an inconsistent, structure-preserving neutralization to [n]; and no neutralization occurred after the low vowel /a/. In contrast, Standard Mandarin controls produced the contrast in all vowel contexts. A follow-up perception experiment confirmed that, consistent with complete neutralization, Shanghai Mandarin listeners failed to distinguish alveolar and velar nasals following /i/. More surprisingly, so did Standard Mandarin listeners, suggesting a near merger of the nasal codas following /i/ in Standard Mandarin. Our results provide support for a role for substantive factors in neutralization-driven sound changes.

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Section: Coda Nasals In Shanghai Mandarin and Shanghainesementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nasal coda neutralization in Shanghai Mandarin: Articulatory and perceptual evidence

Faytak

Liu

Sundara

2020

Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology

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“…Although a vowel with nasal contexts is often nasalized, resulting in higher nasalance scores in languages including both Chinese [31] and English [32], a crosslinguistic study of vowel nasalization further revealed that there is more nasality in Mandarin Chinese than in English [33]. A perception study also showed that the perception of English nasal consonants coda was also affected by the Chinese speakers' dialects [34]. Thus, the nasalance scores of Chinese learners of English may also be influenced by their L1.…”

Section: Purpose Of the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

English Nasalance Values of Chinese Learners of English

Liu

Lee

2020

Folia Phoniatr Logop

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Introduction: Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate nasalance scores of speakers of different languages, little research has examined the nasalance characteristics of second language learners. Objective: The goal of the current study was to examine whether English nasalance values of Mandarin Chinese speakers are similar to those of native English speakers, examining the potential effect of the first language on the nasalance scores of the second language production. Methods: Thirty-two adults (16 Mandarin Chinese speakers and 16 native English speakers) with a normal velopharyngeal anatomy participated. Nasalance scores of various speech stimuli were obtained using a nasometer and compared between the 2 groups. Results and Conclusions: Chinese learners of English produced higher nasalance scores than native English speakers on prolonged vowel /i/ and /a/, the syllable “nin,” and non-nasal sentences and passages. The first language effect on nasalance of the second language found in the current study suggests the importance of linguistic consideration in the clinical evaluation of resonance.

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Sound symbolic associations: evidence from visual, tactile, and interpersonal iconic perception of Mandarin rimes

Li,

Jiang

2024

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Sound symbolism refers to the non-arbitrary relationship between phonemes and specific perceptual attributes. Few studies have focused on the sound symbolic associations between Mandarin phonemes and multiple perceptual dimensions, including social attitudes. The main purpose of the current study is to identify the acoustic cues crucial to perceptual judgment on the visual, tactile, and interpersonal dimensions based on the Mandarin rimes. The study found that in addition to the first and second formants, formant transitions and nasal codas were crucial in characterizing sound symbolic associations. Machine learning models also showed that critical acoustic parameters could successfully classify the different perceived attributes of rimes. The study further examined the mechanisms underlying forming a sound symbolic association. Through mediation analyses, the light/heavy dimension proved to have a suppression effect on the politeness and friendliness perception of Mandarin compound rimes (diphthongs and diphthongs with nasal codas /n/ or /ŋ/). This finding suggested that the two potential mechanisms of sound symbolism (i.e., language pattern account and shared-property account) could coexist and interact with each other.

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The perception of the English alveolar-velar nasal coda contrast by monolingual versus bilingual Chinese speakers

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

Nasal coda neutralization in Shanghai Mandarin: Articulatory and perceptual evidence

Nasal coda neutralization in Shanghai Mandarin: Articulatory and perceptual evidence

English Nasalance Values of Chinese Learners of English

Sound symbolic associations: evidence from visual, tactile, and interpersonal iconic perception of Mandarin rimes

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