ThinkBlog

“Rice University study focuses on merged vowel sounds in different dialects.”

I’m working in the psycholinguistics lab at the University of South Carolina, so this kind of research is right up my alley. This is a novel study because it shows that people from different dialects of the same language (for instance, Appalachian versus Boston English) have the same kinds of trouble as non-native speakers to a secondary language. (E.g., the Japanese and “L” and “R” sounds in English, rendering the name of this language, “Engrish.”)

This phenomenon also happens in listening to music—if your untrained, Western ears are used to piano and you hear an indigenous Indian instrument (the name of which I have forgotten), there are notes so close together that the untrained ear can’t hear them.

If you’re interested in linguistics, language-learning, or psycholinguistics, check out the article.

read more | digg story

“Rice University study focuses on merged vowel sounds in different dialects.”

I’m working in the psycholinguistics lab at the University of South Carolina, so this kind of research is right up my alley. This is a novel study because it shows that people from different dialects of the same language (for instance, Appalachian versus Boston English) have the same kinds of trouble as non-native speakers to a secondary language. (E.g., the Japanese and “L” and “R” sounds in English, rendering the name of this language, “Engrish.”)

This phenomenon also happens in listening to music—if your untrained, Western ears are used to piano and you hear an indigenous Indian instrument (the name of which I have forgotten), there are notes so close together that the untrained ear can’t hear them.

If you’re interested in linguistics, language-learning, or psycholinguistics, check out the article.

read more | digg story