A classroom study on the perception and production of Basque sibilant fricatives by native speakers of English
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Argitaratua
2025-01-29
Ander Beristain
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9083-3871
Laburpena
This study examines the production and perception of the three Basque sibilant fricatives by L1 English learners in a semester-long university course. Basque has three sibilant fricatives: lamino-alveolar (/s̻/), apico-alveolar (/s̺/), and pre-palatal (/ʃ/) sounds. Acoustically, the first two sounds share similarities with English /s/ and /ʃ/, respectively. L2 phonology theories posit that learners will map the production and perception of L2 sounds to (similar) sounds in their native language. Afterwards, they will create new categories based on the phonetic proximity of the new sounds and those in their native language. Ten students enrolled in a Beginners’ Basque course and two native speakers of Basque serving as control group undertook a read-aloud task (Experiment 1) followed by an ABX discrimination task (Experiment 2) during Week 5 of classes. Center of Gravity and accuracy scores were extracted. Results show that learners tended to merge the two apical sibilants into an English /s/-like sound. Accuracy scores between the two alveolar sibilants in Basque were significantly lower than the other sound contrasts.
Nola aipatu
Beristain, Ander. 2025. «A Classroom Study on the Perception and Production of Basque Sibilant Fricatives by Native Speakers of English». Anuario Del Seminario De Filología Vasca "Julio De Urquijo" 57 ((1-2):121-40. https://doi.org/10.1387/asju.25918.
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Beristain, Ander. 2022. Spectral properties of anterior sibilant fricatives in Northern Peninsular Spanish and sibilant-merging and non-merging varieties of Basque. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 52(3), 421–452.
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Flege, James. 2007. Language contact in bilingualism: Phonetic system interactions. In Jennifer Cole & Jose Ignacio Hualde (eds.), Laboratory Phonology 9, 353–381. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
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Lisker, Leigh. 2001. Hearing the Polish sibilants [s š ś]: phonetic and auditory judgements. In Nina Grønnum & Jørgen Rischel (eds.), Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague XXXI, 226–238. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel.
MacSwan, Jeff & Lisa Pray. 2005. Learning English bilingually: Age of onset of exposure and rate of acquisition of English among children in a bilingual education program. Bilingual Research Journal 29(3). 687–712.
Mann, Virginia & Bruno Repp. 1980. Influence of vocalic context on the perception of the [sh]-[s] distinction. Perception & Psychophysics 28. 213–228.
McGuire, Grant. 2007. English listeners’ perception of Polish alveopalatal and retroflex voiceless sibilants: A pilot study. UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report 3(3). 391–417.
Nowak, Paweɫ. 2006. The role of vowel transitions and frication noise in the perception of Polish sibilants. Journal of Phonetics 34(2). 139–152.
Pallier, Cristophe, Laura Bosch & Núria Sebastian-Gallés. 1997. A Limit on Behavioral Plasticity in Speech Perception. Cognition 64. 9–17.
Peirce, Jonathan & Michael MacAskill. 2018. Building Experiments in PsychoPy. London: Sage.
R Core Team. 2019. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org (29/12/2023).
RStudio Team. 2019. RStudio: Integrated Development for R. Boston, MA: RStudio, Inc. http://www.rstudio.com (29/12/2023).
Todd, Ann, Jan Edwards & Ruth Litovsky. 2011. Production of contrast between sibilant fricatives by children with cochlear implants. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 130. 3969–3979.
Whalen, Douglas. 1981. Effect of vocalic formant transitions and vowel quality on the English [s]-[sh] boundary. Journal of Acoustical Society of America 90(4). 275–282.
Bates, Douglas, Martin Maechler, Ben Bolker & Steve Walker. 2015. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67(1). 1–48.
Beristain, Ander. 2018. The acoustic realization of /s̺ / and /ts̻/ by L1 and L2 Basque speakers. In Lorea Unamuno, Asier Romero, Aintzane Etxebarria & Aitor Iglesias (eds.), Linguistic Variation in the Basque Language and Education – III, 70–82. Bilbao: UPV/EHU.
Beristain, Ander. 2019. The acquisition of Basque fricative sibilants by L1 English speakers. Poster presentation at L2 Pronunciation Research Workshop: Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice. Universitat de Barcelona.
Beristain, Ander. 2022. Spectral properties of anterior sibilant fricatives in Northern Peninsular Spanish and sibilant-merging and non-merging varieties of Basque. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 52(3), 421–452.
Best, Catherine. 1995. A direct realist perspective on cross-language speech perception. In Winifred Strange (ed.), Speech Perception and Linguistic Experience: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Cross-language Speech Research, 167–200. Baltimore: York Press.
Best, Catherine, Gerald McRoberts & Elizabeth Goodell. 2001. Discrimination of non-native consonant contrast varying in perceptual assimilation to the listener’s native phonological system. Acoustical Society of America 109(2). 775–794.
Bladon, Anthony, Christopher Clark & Katrina Mickey. 1987. Production and perception of sibilant fricatives: Shona data. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 17. 39–65.
Boersma, Paul & David Weenink. 2019. Praat: doing phonetics by computer, version 6.048. https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/.
Brooks, Mollie, Kasper Kristensen, Koen van Benthem, Arni Magnusson, Casper Berg, Anders Nielsen, Hans Skaug, Martin Maechler & Benjamin Bolker. 2017. glmmTMB Balances Speed and Flexibility Among Packages for Zero-inflated Generalized Linear Mixed Modeling. The R Journal 9(2). 378–400.
Burnham, Kenneth & David Anderson. 2002. Model selection and multimodel inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. New York: Springer-Verlag.
Carney, Patrick & Kenneth Moll. 1971. A cinefluorographic investigation of fricative consonant-vowel coarticulation. Phonetica 23. 193–202.
Flege, James. 1995. Second language speech learning. Theory, findings, and problems. In Winifred Strange (ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research, 233–277. Timonium, MD: York Press.
Flege, James. 2007. Language contact in bilingualism: Phonetic system interactions. In Jennifer Cole & Jose Ignacio Hualde (eds.), Laboratory Phonology 9, 353–381. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Fujisaki, Hiroya & Osamu Kunisaki. 1978. Analysis, recognition, and perception of voiceless fricative consonants in Japanese. IEEE Transactions 26. 21–27.
Hualde, José Ignacio. 2010. Neutralización de sibilantes vascas y seseo en castellano. Oihenart 25. 89–116.
Iribar, Alexander & Carmen Isasi. 2008. El seseo vasco: nuevos datos para una vieja cuestión. Oihenart 23. 241–258.
Iribar, Alexander, Carmen Isasi, Sara Gómez Seibane & Carmen Moral del Hoyo. 2005. Notas para la descripción acústica del seseo vizcaíno. In Manual González, Elisa Fernández & Begoña González (eds.), III Congreso Internacional de Fonética Experimental, 389–398. Santiago de Compostela: Xunta de Galicia.
Jesus, Luis M.T. & Christine H. Shadle. 2002. A parametric study of the spectral characteristics of European Portuguese fricatives. Journal of Phonetics 30(3). 437–464.
Jongman, Allard, Retree Wayland & Serena Wong. 2000. Acoustic characteristics of English fricatives. Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 108(3). 1252–1263.
Jurado, Mirari. 2011. Caracterización de sibilantes fricativas vascas y su percepción en el sistema fonético español. ASJU 45(1). 81–137.
Klein, Wolfgang. 1986. Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kunisaki, Osamu & Hiroya Fujisaki. 1977. On the influence of context upon perception of voiceless fricative consonants. Annual Bulletin, vol. II, 85–91. Tokyo: Research Institute for Logopedics and Phoniatrics, University of Tokyo.
Kuznetsova, Alexandra, Per B. Brockhoff & Rune Haubo Bojesen Christensen. 2017. lmerTest: Tests in Linear Mixed Effects Models. Journal of Statistical Software 82(13). https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13 (Version: 2.0-25, Kuznetsova 2015).
Larraza, Saioa. 2015. Acquisition of Phonology and Spanish-Basque Bilinguals’ Phonological Systems. In Actes du colloque AcquisiLyon 09, 1-4. Lyon: France. http://ohll.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Colloques/AcquisiLyon/pageweb/Fichier/Larraza.pdf (29/12/2023).
Larraza, Saioa, Arthur Samuel & Miren Oñederra. 2017. Where do dialectal effects on speech processing come from? Evidence from a cross-dialect investigation. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 70(1). 92–108.
Lisker, Leigh. 2001. Hearing the Polish sibilants [s š ś]: phonetic and auditory judgements. In Nina Grønnum & Jørgen Rischel (eds.), Travaux du Cercle Linguistique de Copenhague XXXI, 226–238. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzel.
MacSwan, Jeff & Lisa Pray. 2005. Learning English bilingually: Age of onset of exposure and rate of acquisition of English among children in a bilingual education program. Bilingual Research Journal 29(3). 687–712.
Mann, Virginia & Bruno Repp. 1980. Influence of vocalic context on the perception of the [sh]-[s] distinction. Perception & Psychophysics 28. 213–228.
McGuire, Grant. 2007. English listeners’ perception of Polish alveopalatal and retroflex voiceless sibilants: A pilot study. UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report 3(3). 391–417.
Nowak, Paweɫ. 2006. The role of vowel transitions and frication noise in the perception of Polish sibilants. Journal of Phonetics 34(2). 139–152.
Pallier, Cristophe, Laura Bosch & Núria Sebastian-Gallés. 1997. A Limit on Behavioral Plasticity in Speech Perception. Cognition 64. 9–17.
Peirce, Jonathan & Michael MacAskill. 2018. Building Experiments in PsychoPy. London: Sage.
R Core Team. 2019. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna, Austria: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org (29/12/2023).
RStudio Team. 2019. RStudio: Integrated Development for R. Boston, MA: RStudio, Inc. http://www.rstudio.com (29/12/2023).
Todd, Ann, Jan Edwards & Ruth Litovsky. 2011. Production of contrast between sibilant fricatives by children with cochlear implants. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 130. 3969–3979.
Whalen, Douglas. 1981. Effect of vocalic formant transitions and vowel quality on the English [s]-[sh] boundary. Journal of Acoustical Society of America 90(4). 275–282.
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