Bilingual exposure influences infant VOT perception

Liquan Liu; René Kager

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.12.004

Bilingual exposure influences infant VOT perception

Infant Behav Dev. 2015 Feb:38:27-36. doi: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.12.004. Epub 2014 Dec 31.

Authors

Liquan Liu¹, René Kager²

Affiliations

¹ Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Utrecht University, Trans 10, 3512 JK, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: l.liu@uu.nl.
² Utrecht Institute of Linguistics OTS, Utrecht University, Trans 10, 3512 JK, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: r.w.j.kager@uu.nl.

PMID: 25555248
DOI: 10.1016/j.infbeh.2014.12.004

Abstract

Linking the discrimination of voice onset time (VOT) in infancy with infant language background, we examine the perceptual changes of two VOT contrasts (/b/-/p/ and /p(h)/-/p/) by Dutch monolingual and bilingual infants from 8 to 15 months of age. Results showed that language exposure and language dominance had a strong impact on monolingual and bilingual infant VOT perceptual patterns. In addition, perceptual turbulence was found at 8-9 months for bilingual infants, and stabilized perception was presented for all infants from 11 months onwards. We thus report a general input-driven developmental VOT perception in both monolingual and bilingual infants, with perceptual turbulence for bilinguals in the second half of the first year of life.

Keywords: Bilingualism; Infant speech perception; Language dominance; Perceptual tuning; Perceptual turbulence; Voice onset time.

MeSH terms

Awareness
Female
Humans
Infant
Language Development*
Male
Multilingualism*
Phonetics*
Speech Acoustics
Speech Perception*