Pronunciation of Vowel Digraphs in Nonwords: A Replication and Extension

In English, the pronunciation of a vowel digraph can vary; for example, <i>ea</i> is pronounced /ɛ/ in <i>bread</i> but /i/ in <i>beach</i> and /eɪ/ in <i>break</i>. We investigated participant-level effects on the pronunciation of ambiguous vowel digraphs in nonwords (e.g., <i>yeath</i>) using standardized test measures of six reading-related skills in 80 young adults. We employed both an established written task and set of nonword stimuli and a spoken version of the task with the same stimuli. We largely replicated the previously reported pattern of preferred nonword pronunciations in both the written and spoken versions of the task. Generalized linear mixed-effects model analyses revealed that individual differences in phonological memory, spelling knowledge, and word reading efficiency contributed to pronunciation choice beyond item-level effects. Overall, taken together with the results of item-level analyses, our findings are consistent with models and theories in which specific reading-related skills, intralexical context, and interlexical pronunciation knowledge influence ambiguous vowel digraph pronunciation in nonword reading in fluently reading young adults.