Timing of perceptual cues in Scots Gaelic

Abstract

Scots Gaelic, an endangered language, has several typologically unusual sound distinctions. Work on English or other languages cannot predict what perceptual cues Gaelic listeners might use to perceive these distinctions. The current work uses gating experiments, run in Scotland with 16 native listeners (monolingual in Gaelic until at least school age), to investigate timing of perceptual cues to the palatalization, preaspiration, and nasal frication contrasts. Results show that perceptual information about consonant palatalization is located primarily in the consonant itself, with weaker cues in the preceding vowel. For preaspiration, there is no perceptual information in the preceding vowel, but even half of the preaspiration provides a sufficient cue. The claimed nasal fricatives are particularly interesting, as true nasalized fricatives may be aerodynamically impossible, but nasalization could be realized on the preceding vowel, or without frication. The results show that listeners are only marginally able to hear this distinction, and that information does not increase through the signal: The little perceptual information present is already available during the preceding vowel. This confirms aerodynamic results showing some neutralization of this distinction and some nasalization during the preceding vowel. Overall, the results help us determine how information is conveyed using typologically unusual distinctions.