Vowel perception in Swedish, English, and Spanish

This study examines the role of linguistic experience in vowel perception. Two main questions are addressed: (1) How do speakers of different languages label the same area of vowel space? (2) What is the relationship between phonetic labeling and acoustic sensitivity for vowels? Identification functions and goodness ratings for the high, front quadrant of the vowel space were obtained from speakers of Swedish, English, and Spanish. Stimuli along one vector in this space were used in a discrimination task. The results show that (a) speakers of different languages label the vowels in this space in accord with their native vowel inventory, (b) rather than incorporating all areas of the vowel space into their native language categories, there is dead space where listeners say the vowels are not in their language, and (c) there are significant differences in discrimination ability between speakers of different languages which are consistent with their different identification functions. These results suggest that linguistic experience plays an important role in vowel perception.