Rikke L. Bundgaard-Nielsen|Brett Baker|Christian Kroos|Mark Harvey|Catherine T. Best
Discrimination of Multiple Coronal Stop Contrasts in Wubuy (Australia): A Natural Referent Consonant Account
La Trobe University|Western Sydney University|University of Melbourne|Western Sydney University|Curtin University|University of Newcastle Australia|Haskins Laboratories|Western Sydney University
native speech perception generally assumed highly efficient accurate little research however directly examined limitations native perception especially contrasts minimally differentiated acoustically articulatorily demonstrate native speech perception may indeed difficult often assumed phonemes highly similar address nature extremes consonant perception present two studies native nonnative english perception acoustically articulatorily similar fourway coronal stop contrast symbol see text apicoalveolar apicoretroflex laminodental laminoalveopalatal wubuy indigenous language australia results show listeners find contrasts involving easy discriminate groups contrasts involving symbol see text much harder two groups differ results largely reflect native language wubuy vs english attunement predicted perceptual assimilation model also observe striking perceptual asymmetries native listeners perception contrasts involving latter three stops likely due differences input frequency asymmetries previously observed adults propose novel natural referent consonant hypothesis account results