Do English speakers assimilate Mandarin tones to English prosodic categories

Abstract

This study examined whether native English (NE) speakers perceive non-native tones of Mandarin in terms of their English intonational categories (Flat pitch, Question, Uncertainty, and Statement). The results indicated that NE listeners assimilated non-native tones to their native intonational categories, which share phonetic similarities with those of Mandarin tones. Thus, the assumption that assimilations of non-native prosodic categories (e.g., tones) to native prosodic categories – an extension from the Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM) – is supported.