Thai Speakers’ Mispronunciation of Japanese Singleton and Geminate Stops

Abstract

To clarify the characteristics of Thai speakers’ mispronunciation of Japanese singleton and geminate stops, durations of the closure and the preceding and following consonant-vowel segments were analyzed. Compared with native Japanese speakers, Thai speakers mispronounced singleton stops with a longer closure and a shorter preceding consonant-vowel segment. They also mispronounced geminate stops with a shorter closure and a longer following consonant-vowel segment. These results are consistent with a previous study of Korean and Taiwanese Mandarin speakers, suggesting that non-native speakers commonly mispronounce Japanese singleton and geminate stops with inadequate durations of a closure segment and preceding and following consonant-vowel segments.