Combinatorial Effects of Southern French Features on Perception
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Abstract
This experiment tests the effects of co-occurrence of Southern features on the perception of spoken Southern French. Specifically, it investigates the perception of word-internal schwas in relation to their co-occurrence with different realisations of a nasal vowel. While nasal vowels in standard French are realised as fully nasalised, they are stereotypically realised with a consonantal nasal coda in Southern varieties. Word-internal schwas are indexically linked to both formality and Southern varieties. The different combinatorial effects of these features are analysed. This study also tests whether the absence of the Southern nasal vowel in Southern French speech can impact speech perception, using a within-subject (Linguistic Conditions) and between-subject (Regional Information Conditions) design. Results show an incremental effect of schwa and Southern nasal vowel presence on the perception of accentedness, while the perceived degree of formality is affected by schwa only when co-occurring with the Southern nasal vowel. There is no evidence that feature absence plays a role in speech perception.