Perceptual evidence of Modern Greek voiced stops as phonological categories

Mark Antoniou1, Catherine T. Best1,2, Michael, D. Tyler1

1
MARCS Auditory Laboratories, University of Western Sydney, Australia
2
Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA
m.antoniou@uws.edu.au, c.best@uws.edu.au, m.tyler@uws.edu.au

Abstract 3.Results and Discussion

Despite much academic debate, the phonological status of MGs showed consistent ID of all MG stops. MG [p, b, t, d]
voiced stops in Modern Greek (MG) remains unclear. Native were consistently identified as /p, b, t, d/, respectively. All
listeners typically discriminate phonological contrasts in MG stops were rated above ‘6,’ near the native ideal, as
their native language without difficulty. MG listeners showed would be expected for native phonological categories. As
excellent discrimination of the MG bilabial [p]-[b] and predicted, both AE voiced and voiceless stops were
coronal contrasts [t]-[d], significantly better than nonnative assimilated to MG voiceless categories (Table 1). AE [t] was
Australian English (AE) [ph]-[p] and [th]-[t]. These results are identified as ‘t’ in 53.75% of responses, as ‘d’ 37.50% of the
interpreted as evidence of the phonological status of MG time and as prenasalised ‘nd’ and ‘nt’ for the remainder.
voiced stops /b, d/.
Index Terms: speech perception, Greek, stop consonant, Table 1. Identification category label, % identification and
voicing. mean category-goodness rating for each phone (1 “very
unusual” to 7 “native”).
1.Introduction Stimulus AE /p/ AE /b/ AE /t/ AE /d/
ID p p t t
Voiced stops, such as [b, d], occur phonetically in MG, and % 100 95.00 100 53.75
may be prenasalised [mb, nd] in some contexts. Despite their Rating 3.73 4.36 3.51 3.97
occurrence, the phonological status of MG voiced stops
Stimulus MG /p/ MG /b/ MG /t/ MG /d/
remains unclear [1]. No one disputes the phonological status
ID p b t d
of MG voiceless stops, which are typically described as
% 98.75 98.33 95.00 88.75
short-lag voice onset time (VOT) [2], e.g. [p, t], although
Rating 6.29 6.14 6.32 6.13
their production may vary from partially voiced to voiceless
[3]. The variability in MG is of interest to phonetic and The MG contrasts were discriminated significantly better
phonological theories. Despite longstanding phonological than the AE contrasts (F(1, 20) = 24.277, p < .001, ηp2 =
debate, MG listeners’ perception of stop voicing distinctions .548). Discrimination of MG contrasts was excellent (both
has not been sufficiently investigated to address the unusual >90%), while for AE it was moderate, AE /p/-/b/ = 73.21%
phonetic and phonological status of MG stop voicing, nor has and AE /t/-/d/ = 75% (Figure 1). This is consistent with what
cross-language perception been examined. AE differs from would be expected when comparing discrimination of native
MG in the phonetic settings of VOT used for stop voicing phonological contrasts, which belong to separate
distinctions. AE voiced stops have short-lag VOT in initial phonological categories, compared to nonnative contrasts,
position, e.g. [p, t], while voiceless stops are long-lag which in this case reflect a CG assimilation.
aspirated in initial position, e.g. [ph, th].
100
If MG voiced stops have full phonological status as
M % correct

90
contrastive with voiceless stops, MGs should easily perceive
80
MG stops produced with voicing lead [b, d] and short-lag [p,
70
t] and discrimination will be excellent. The Perceptual 60
Assimilation Model (PAM) [4] predicts that MGs will 50
perceptually assimilate AE [p, t] (short-lag) as good AE [ph]-[p] AE [th]-[t] M G [p]-[b] M G [t]-[d]
exemplars of MG /p, t/ and AE [ph, th] (long-lag) as poor
exemplars of MG /p, t/. This will result in a category- Figure 1. Mean % correct discriminations per contrast.
goodness (CG) assimilation, and discrimination of the AE Standard error bars are displayed.
contrasts should be moderate.

2.Method 4.Conclusions
The results provide perceptual evidence that MGs perceive
Two AE and two MG speakers produced AE and MG bilabial
MG [b, d] as phonological categories, i.e. /b, d/, and that
and coronal tokens in /Ca/ context. Native MGs (N = 21)
native MG categories constrain discrimination of nonnative
completed an AXB discrimination task (16 randomised trials
contrasts, such as AE /p/-/b/ and /t/-/d/. Future research
per contrast) and a forced-choice identification (ID) task (‘p,’
should investigate MG listeners’ perception of stops in word-
‘b,’ ‘t,’ ‘d,’ ‘mp,’ ‘mb,’ ‘nt,’ ‘nd’) with ratings (1 “very
medial contexts to assess the effect of prenasalisation on MG
unusual” to 7 “native”). Tokens were presented once for
perception.
identification and a second time for rating.
5.References
[1] Arvaniti, A., & Joseph, B. D. (2000). Variation in voiced stop
prenasalization in Greek. Glossologia, 11-12, 131-166.
[2] Lisker, L., & Abramson, A. (1964). A cross-linguistic study of
voicing in initial stops: Acoustical measurements, Word, 20, 384–
422.
[3] Botinis, A., Fourakis, M., & Prinou, I. (2000). Acoustic structure
of the Greek stop consonants, Glossologia, 11-1, 167-199.
[4] Best, C. (1995). A direct realist view of cross-language speech
perception, Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues
in cross-language research, 171-204.