Variation of Oral and Nasal Stops by English and Japanese Learners of Thai

Abstract

A categorical variability constraint-based analysis (Boersma & Hayes 2001) accounts for oral and nasal stop acquisition in three different positions by English and Japanese learners of Thai. Homorganic nasals take place at the intermediate level where two or more surface forms are selected as optimal candidates. Both aspirated and voiced stops also occur, avoiding an unaspirated onset in almost equal frequencies. To account for variation of Thai stops, GLA, a stochastic OT approach is adopted for constraint reassessment rather than standard OT. In the initial state of the grammar, markedness constraints outrank faithfulness constraints for beginners. Markedness and faithfulness constraints overlap for intermediate learners exhibiting variation. At the advanced stage, faithfulness constraints were higher ranked because both English and Japanese learners are able to master Thai oral and nasal stops. The analysis proposed in the paper yields more accurate results than a categorical analysis.