Perception and Production of the Aspiration Contrast in Mandarin Retroflex Affricates [tʂ] and [tʂh] by Adult Spanish Speakers Learning Mandarin Chinese: An Exploratory Study

This exploratory study examines the perception and production of the aspiration contrast in Mandarin voiceless retroflex affricates zh [tʂ] and ch [tʂh] by ten adult Spanish speakers (three Peruvian, seven Chilean) at Nanjing University. Participants completed a perception identification task and a production reading task using the same set of 128 syllables. Voice Onset Time (VOT) measurements from the production task were converted to binary classifications for cross-modality comparison. Perception accuracy was moderately high (zh [tʂ]: 84.43%; ch [tʂh]: 82.39%), whilst production accuracy was substantially lower (zh [tʂ]: 32.61%; ch [tʂh]: 19.15% within native VOT ranges). Participants maintained the aspiration contrast (zh [tʂ] = 58 ms, ch [tʂh] = 125 ms) but consistently underproduced VOT compared to native speakers (zh [tʂ] = 67 ms, ch [tʂh] = 164 ms). Perception patterns align with Category Goodness (CG) assimilation within PAM-L2: both Mandarin sounds map to Spanish [tʃ] but with different goodness-of-fit, enabling moderate discrimination. Production follows SLM-r predictions, with learners developing a Composite L1–L2 Category that maintains the aspiration contrast but fails to establish new phonetic categories. The small sample size (n = 10) precluded robust statistical testing of individual differences. The perception–production asymmetry supports independent modality development in L2 phonetic acquisition.