L2 production and perception as a diagnostic for the phonological status of L1 vocoids/‘interconsonantal intervals’ (ICIs)

Obied Al-Aqlobi, Sam Hellmuth

Research output: Contribution to conferencePosterpeer-review

Abstract

Speakers of Arabic dialects are known to insert ICIs to break up illicit consonant clusters in their L1 and/or L2 (Broselow, 1984). These vowels might vary in underlying status: epenthetic vowels are phonological units used to modify illegal structures; intrusive vowels are phonetic transitions “produced between consonants through a retiming of existing articulatory gestures” (Hall 2006:388). We explore here the status of inserted vowels in L1 Bisha Arabic (BA) and Makkah Arabic (MA) using Hall’s (2006) diagnostics (± variable quality of ICIs / ±
heterorganicity of cluster) in tandem with production and perception of L2 English clusters by the same speakers and show that evidence from L2 processing can provide independent support for Hall’s phonological account. Further, we use the Signal Detection Theory (SDT) to explore the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) for phonotactics (cf. Best, 1995).
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 27 May 2021

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