Perception of Persian uvular and velar stop consonants by speakers of American English

Abstract

Recent cross-language studies by Werker and Tees [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 75, 1866–1878 (1984)] describe difficulties in English speakers' perception of a Thompson glottalized uvular-velar stop contrast. However, the acoustic information that differentiated the contrasting phones was difficult to specify. The present study extends the examination of non-English place contrasts by investigating native English speakers' ability to perceive a nonglottalized uvular-velar contrast in Persian (Farsi). Multiple instances of velar and uvular stop consonants produced in several VCV contexts by a native speaker of Farsi were presented. Correct identification of the medial consonant varied systematically as a function of vowel context from very few errors to near change performance. Acoustic analysis revealed systematic F2 and F3 formant transition differences between uvular and velar consonants produced in the same vowel context. Variations in voicing offset (murmur) were also observed in several vowel contexts. These results further our understanding of the role of linguistic experience in the perception of phonetic categories. [Research supported by NINCDS.]