Factors influencing L2 Tone Perception in Cherokee

Oklahoma Cherokee has six contrastive tones in non-final syllables. This study is an exploratory investigation of the factors affecting the auditory identification, classification, and learning of these six tones by L2 learners with a non-tonal L1 and no prior experience learning Cherokee. In an overt phonological training task, participants identified tones on all non-final syllables of 41 multisyllabic words. The study’s objectives are to (1) assess the relative difficulty of the six tones for learners (2) identify and explain common tone confusions (3) determine effects of linguistic context on identification and (4) determine effects of short-term learning. The results suggest that tones 2, 32, and 4 are easier for learners, while tones 1, 23, and 3 pose greater challenges. When participants’ categorization was inaccurate, they still recognized general pitch contours and pitch levels. Their responses also showed significant learning effects for two tones, as well as effects of tonal context.