Perception of American English dark /l/ by normally hearing young adult women.
This perceptual study describes changes in how listeners perceive VCV elements within successive truncations taken from an iambic phrase containing /l/ (e.g. a leaf, or a load) spoken by four male speakers of General American English. Evidence of the respective roles of dorsal gestural affiliation between /l/ and the reduced vowel, (V(1)CV(2)), and gestural separation from a tautosyllabic high front vowel (V(2)) were demonstrated. Coproduction of dark-l with a preceding reduced vowel was evident in early reports of back vowels or diphthongs, particularly when the carrier word contained a front vowel, and was noted more in darker-l than lighter-l speakers. The pairing of /l/ with a tautosyllabic front vowel reduced earlier identification of /l/, whereas its pairing with a back vowel enhanced early identification. The role of perceived contrast in identification of /l/ was reflected in changes in listener's perception of the reduced vowel across successive truncations. Clinical implications are addressed.
Roussel
Nancye
N
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 70504-3170, USA.
Oxley
Judith
J
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019992:Databases as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010700:Phonetics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013060:Speech; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult