Eesti vokaalikategooriate piirid vene ja eesti emakeelega kõnelejate tajuruumis
Estonian vowel category boundaries in the perception space of Russian and Estonian subjects

Summary/Abstract: Adult second language (L2) learners often face difficulties in the pronunciation and perception of L2 speech segments. It is mainly due to the so-called phonological deafness towards certain phonetic contrasts of L2, which develops after the acquisition of a child’s first language (L1) phonetic inventory during its early years of life. The ability to perceive and distinguish L2 sounds depends on the phonetic distance between similar segments in L1 and L2. The aim of the study is to test the perception of Estonian vowel categories by L2 learners of Estonian whose L1 is Russian. Estonian vowel system includes nine vowels whereas Russian has only six. Five of the Estonian vowels, /i/, /e/, /u/, /o/ and /a/, have their counterparts in Russian; the new vowel categories are /ü/, /ö/, /ä/, and partly /õ/.

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