Tashlhiyt Berber is known for having typologically unusual word-initial phonological contrasts, specifically, word-initial singleton-geminate minimal pairs (e.g., sin vs ssin) and sequences of consonants that violate the sonority sequencing principle (e.g., non-rising sonority sequences: fsin). The current study investigates the role of a listener-oriented speaking style on the perceptual enhancement of these rarer phonological contrasts. It examines the perception of word-initial singleton, geminate, and complex onsets in Tashlhiyt Berber across clear and casual speaking styles by native and naive listeners. While clear speech boosts the discriminability of pairs containing singleton-initial words for both listener groups, only native listeners performed better in discriminating between initial singleton-geminate contrasts in clear speech. Clear speech did not improve perception for lexical contrasts containing a non-rising-sonority consonant cluster for either listener group. These results are discussed in terms of how clear speech can inform phonological typology and the role of phonetic enhancement in language-universal vs language-specific speech perception.
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December 2022
December 13 2022
Clear speech in Tashlhiyt Berber: The perception of typologically uncommon word-initial contrasts by native and naive listeners
Georgia Zellou;
Georgia Zellou
a)
1
Department of Linguistics, University of California
, Davis, California 95616, USA
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Mohamed Lahrouchi;
Mohamed Lahrouchi
2
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique & Université Paris 8
, Paris, France
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Karim Bensoukas
Karim Bensoukas
3
Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat
, Rabat, Morocco
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a)
Electronic mail: gzellou@ucdavis.edu
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 152, 3429–3443 (2022)
Article history
Received:
June 30 2022
Accepted:
October 25 2022
Citation
Georgia Zellou, Mohamed Lahrouchi, Karim Bensoukas; Clear speech in Tashlhiyt Berber: The perception of typologically uncommon word-initial contrasts by native and naive listeners. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1 December 2022; 152 (6): 3429–3443. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0016579
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