Reciprocal Perception of Chinese and Korean Affricates and Fricatives

Current speech perception models make predictions based on the similarity and dissimilarity between L1 and L2 sounds to explore how the listeners judge the cross-language phonetic similarity is of great importance in the research of L2 perception and production. The present study examined the perceptual relationships between Chinese and Korean affricates and fricatives and provided detailed empirical data on perception of the two particular groups of sounds. Two experiments were carried out. In Experiment 1, native Chinese speakers listened to Korean CV syllables contrasting syllable-initially and mapped the Korean consonants onto the Chinese sound system. In Experiment 2, same procedures were used to examine how Korean speakers perceive Chinese consonants. Results revealed the complex perceptual relationship between the consonant inventories of the two languages. Korean sounds, especially the lax group, were perceived as diversified Chinese consonants, but with varied patterns across vowel contexts. In contrast, Chinese consonants were perceived into the Korean system in a more consistent manner across listeners. These findings confirmed that L2 sounds are perceived within the framework of listeners' L1 phonological systems. They also provided basis for further research on the evaluation of current speech learning models.