Perception of /ʎ/ and /j/ in Catalan and Spanish implications on «yeísmo» explanation

Abstract

‘Yeísmo’ in Spanish has rarely been studied from a phonetic perspective and, if it has, the usual approach has been that of articulatory phonetics. In this study, by contrast, the main focus is on the perceptual component of the merger. To do so, we have compared the Spanish contrast /ʎ/ - /j/ with the Catalan, a language in which the opposition is still clear in spite of several scholars’ remarks on the existence of an emerging yeísmo. There are two main goals in this research: on the one hand, we want to determine if Catalan and Spanish speakers recognize properly the palatal lateral and the palatal approximant consonants; on the other, we want to check if the /ʎ/ and /j/ categories in those languages can be considered equivalent. To achieve these objectives, we have conducted two identification and two discrimination tests on Catalan and Spanish judges. The results prove that Spanish judges make more errors than Catalan judges in discriminating [ʎ] and [j] stimulus. Besides, they suggest that palatal lateral in Catalan is perceived as a different segment from palatal lateral in Spanish, whereas instances of [j] from the two systems have been identified as belonging to the same category. These data imply that the phonological opposition /ʎ/ - /j/ in Catalan presents a larger perceptual distance than the Spanish one, which entails an easier discrimination. This can explain why the contrast still operates in this language. Conversely, the smaller perceptual distance in Spanish favours the misperception and, consequently, the gradual extension of the neutralization.