On the perception of incomplete neutralization

The perception of American English epenthetic and underlying stops\n(as in prin[t]ce~prints) was examined in a forced-choice identification\nexperiment that controlled for word frequency and familiarity, closure\nduration and presence of burst. The results showed that listeners\nare largely unable to distinguish minimal pairs on the basis of differences\nin closure duration and the presence or absence of burst; word frequency\nand familiarity had little effect on the results. Generally, listeners\nhad more difficulty with stimuli with strong [t]s (long closure,\nburst) than with stimuli with weak [t]s, which they tended to categorize\nas “nce” words. Overall the results suggest that [ns]~[nts] is close\nto complete neutralization in favor of [nts]. Keywords: epenthesis,\nincomplete neutralization, perceptual sensitivity, American English.