9/20/2023 0 Comments Youtbe auditory illusionsThis is why, as the classic song goes, “Mele Kalikimaka” is “Merry Christmas” in Hawaiian which, in addition to not having the letters ‘r’ or ‘s,’ doesn’t allow consonant clusters (e.g., ‘chr’) or consonants at the end of syllables (e.g., ‘mas’).Īs the Hawaiian phrase “Mele Kalikimaka” (“Merry Christmas”) demonstrates, words borrowed from another language are often adapted to fit the language’s sound sequence rules. When words with these “illegal” sound sequences are adopted into a language, they often undergo transformations to make them acceptable for that language. For example, in Dutch, words cannot end with a ‘z’ sound, which is also reflected in the spelling: the singular of “huizen” is not “huiz” but “huis.” Spanish doesn’t allow words to start with ‘s’ and another consonant, which is why the words “special” and “stupid” are “especial” and “estúpido” in Spanish. Our brains try to fix this by changing what we hear, sometimes making us hear sounds that aren’t even there.Įvery language has rules about what sounds can go together and where in a word they can appear. ![]() This happens especially when the word sounds very different from what words in our mother tongue sound like. In a previous blog we discussed how accents are the result of both the speaker and listener’s experience, but today we’ll discuss how non-native speakers can actually hear with an accent. ![]() ![]() When trying to speak a foreign language, your native language can influence your pronunciation, but did you know it can also make you hear things that aren’t there?
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