How Language-specific Perceptual Cues Can Explain Differences in Onset Clusters: The Case of /tr/ in Polish and English

Abstract

/tr/ onset clusters in Polish and English show different phonetic realizations. Contra previous accounts locating the cause for this in a different gestural timing or a different phonological representation, we propose the two languages employ different perceptual cues necessary for the perception of consonants in language-specific clusters: in English, voiceless plosives are followed only by sonorants in onsets, and the sonorant release sufficiently cues the plosive, while in Polish, with its much larger cluster inventory, an audible release of a plosive followed by another plosive is necessary to identify the place of articulation of the first plosive. A formalization of the mapping between /tr/ and its language-specific cues is provided and employed for native and non-native perception. The resulting predictions are compared to existing perceptual studies.