Constraints of vowels and consonants on lexical selection: Cross-linguistic comparisons

Languages differ in the constitution of their phonemic repertoire and in th e relative distinctiveness of phonemes within the repertoire. In the presen t study, we asked whether such differences constrain spoken-word recognitio n, via two word reconstruction experiments, in which listeners turned non w ords into real words by changing single sounds. The experiments were carrie d out in Dutch (which has a relatively balanced vowel-consonant ratio and m any similar vowels) and in Spanish (which has many more consonants than vow els and high distinctiveness among the vowels). Both Dutch and Spanish list eners responded significantly faster and more accurately when required to c hange vowels as opposed to consonants; when allowed to change any phoneme, they more often altered vowels than consonants. Vowel information thus appe ars to constrain lexical selection less tightly (allow more potential candi dates) than does consonant information, independent of language-specific ph oneme repertoire and of relative distinctiveness of vowels.