Rhotic Environments

Effects of Dialect Exposure on Perception of Rhoticity

Abstract

This study examines if a listener’s exposure to nonrhotic dialects of English affects how they perceive rhoticity in words spoken in a Boston English accent. Listener judgments on the rhoticity of both nonce words and words in phrases were elicited through a 120-question survey. The results suggest that listeners from the United States who grew up in regions where nonrhotic dialects are prevalent perceived /ɹ/ in certain nonrhotic articulations more than their counterparts did.