A Problem of Prosodic Transfer in the Perception of German Learners of Japanese and Japanese Learners of German

This study investigates F0, intensity and duration as acoustic parameters for the perception changing their relative weight, according to the perceptual development. Four groups – native Japanese who have studied German for one year at the Department of German, native Germans who don’t understand Japanese, Japanese students who had lived in Germany for more than one year, and German students who had lived in Japan for about one year – were given a perception test of manipulated 2-syllable words. The results indicate the following: 1) Japanese students employ F0 as a perception cue. 2) German students employ all of the acoustic parameters as perception cues: F0, intensity and duration. 3) Japanese may also employ intensity as a cue at the similar level to Germans depending on the length of time they have learnt German and lived in Germany. 4) Germans learning Japanese and living in Japan tend to reduce the use of intensity as a cue.