Practice question · Multiple choice
A Spanish speaker hears the second consonant of English "spin" as closer to their own /b/ than to their /p/. Why?
Hints
- The English plosive after /s/ has a short-lag VOT.
- Where the perceptual boundary falls differs between the two languages.
Show the answer
A. English /p/ is unaspirated here; Spanish has less aspiration and draws voicing boundaries differently
Why
Because the English plosive after /s/ has a short-lag VOT, which falls on the /b/ side of where a Spanish listener divides the continuum. The sounds are what they are; the categories differ. This is the clearest everyday demonstration that phoneme boundaries are properties of a language rather than of acoustics.
Practise English Consonants I: Plosives and Fricatives
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