SOCIAL EFFECTS ON THE PERCEPTION OF VIETNAMESE TONES

Marc Brunelle1 & Stefanie Jannedy2
1University of Ottawa; 2Humboldt University

ID 1231
[full paper]

The rate of correct identification of tones in Vietnamese is influenced by the dialect of the stimuli to which the hearer is exposed (northern vs. southern). However, sociophonetic factors such as the dialect of the person administering the experiment (northern vs. southern) and, by extension, accommodation via length of exposure to the experimenter also play a role. Our results indicate that listeners adjust their interpretation of some tone-stimuli in accordance with the dialect of the person administering the experiment, strongly suggesting that both perceptual cues contained in the signal and inferred social factors play a role in the categorization of tones in Vietnamese.

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