There are at least 6,000 languages spoken in the world today [1]. The world’s languages are represented by a variety of writing systems called “orthographies.” Orthographies are the symbols used to represent spoken language. You are looking at one type of orthography now, as you read this! So, an orthography consists of the symbols used to turn a spoken language into a written form. However, or...

A series of eye-tracking and categorization experiments investigated the use of speaking-rate information in the segmentation of Dutch ambiguous-word sequences. Juncture phonemes with ambiguous durations (e.g., [s] in 'eens (s)peer,' "once (s)pear," [t] in 'nooit (t)rap,' "never staircase/quick") were perceived as longer and hence more often as word-initial when following a fast than a slow con...

Lexical information can bias categorization of an ambiguous phoneme and subsequently evoke a shift in the phonetic boundary. Here, we explored the extent to which this phenomenon is perceptual in nature. Listeners were asked to ignore auditory stimuli presented in a typical oddball sequence in which the standard was an ambiguous sound halfway between /t/ and /p/ embedded in a Dutch word normall...

Does experience with a perceptual cue for a phoneme contrast in the native language affect its use in a second language for a similar contrast in a different phonetic context? Two experiments investigated Dutch and English listeners' use of preceding vowel duration as a perceptual cue for nonword-final fricative voicing in English. Dutch listeners have native language experience with the use of...

Listeners of various languages tend to perceive an illusory vowel inside consonant clusters that are illegal in their native language. Here, we test whether this phenomenon arises after phoneme categorization or rather interacts with it. We assess the perception of illegal consonant clusters in native speakers of Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and European Portuguese, three languages that have...

Reaction time data have long been collected in order to gain insight into the underlying mechanisms involved in language processing. Means analyses often attempt to break down what factors relate to what portion of the total reaction time. From a dynamic systems theory perspective or an interaction dominant view of language processing, it is impossible to isolate discrete factors contributing t...

Language is uniquely human, but its acquisition may involve cognitive capacities shared with other species. During development, language experience alters speech sound (phoneme) categorization. Newborn infants distinguish the phonemes in all languages but by 10 months show adult-like greater sensitivity to native language phonemic contrasts than non-native contrasts. Distributional theories acc...

This event-related potential (ERP) study examines the influence of dialectal competence differences (merged vs. unmerged dialect group) on cross-dialectal comprehension between Southern German dialects. It focuses on the question as to whether certain dialect phonemes (/[Formula: see text]/, /[Formula: see text]/), which are attributed to different lexemes in two dialect areas (Central Bavarian...

This study investigates the extent to which age-related language processing difficulties are due to a decline in sensory processes or to a deterioration of cognitive factors, specifically, attentional control. Two facets of attentional control were examined: inhibition of irrelevant information and divided attention. Younger and older adults were asked to categorize the initial phoneme of spoke...

ةــصلاخلا : ُـي ةيساسلأا تاضارتفلاا نم ةلاحلا دادتملا يسدنهلا عيزوتلا ربتع ةراشلأل فوآرام ةجذمن ءادأ نم د ُّ حت يتلا ةيتوص لا . ة يعباتتلا ءاز جلأا جذو منأ نإ ف ،مو معلا ى لعو – تا يئزج كلذ آو ،ةيئاوش علا HMM ى لعو ، يف ةبوعص ةجرد يف ةدا يز ى لإ هرود ب يدؤ ي اً يئزج صقن لا اذ ه زواجتل ،صوصخلا روطلا د يدحتو بيرد ت . جذو من نمض توصلا تايئاصحلال يجيرد تلا ي نمزلا ر يغتلا جرد ن م ل ،ضار تفلاا اذ ه ى ل...