PERCEPTION OF VOWEL LENGTH: TONALITY CUES CATEGORIZATION EVEN IN A QUANTITY LANGUAGE

Juhani Järvikivi1, Daniel Aalto2, Reijo Aulanko3 & Martti Vainio3
1University of Turku; 2Helsinki University of Technology; 3University of Helsinki

ID 1509
[full paper]

A two-alternative forced-choice categorization experiment (2AFC) tested whether the type of tone (static high vs. dynamic fall) affected the perception of the length of a stressed initial syllable in Finnish, when the participants had to categorize it as “short” or “long”. In addition to the main effects of the duration of the first and second syllables, the results showed a significant main effect of tone that was qualified by an interaction with the duration of the first syllable nuclei. More precisely, the participants were ceteris paribus more likely to categorize the vowel of the first syllable as “long” in the dynamic fall condition than the high tone condition. The results showed that, alongside with duration, also the tonal structure is used as a strong perceptual cue for the quantity opposition in Finnish.