Why do Japanese preceive geminates not existing in the source language? : A new approach by acoustic and articulatory phonetics

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When English words are borrowed into Japanese, some words are borrowed with geminate consonants which English language doesn't have. So an English word, 'set' is borrowed as 'setto' with a geminate, while 'sect' is borrowed as 'sekuto' without a geminate. This study examines from the acoustic point of view why some English words are perceived with geminates, while some are not. Four acoustic factors proposed in the previous studies of Japanese geminates based on Japanese words were scrutinized to see if any of them could be the affecting factors of Japanese speakers' perception of geminates in English.English-like non words, /tek/, /tekt/, /teks/, /tekl/, /tekin/, /teg/, /teb/, /teklin/, /tektin/, recorded by the English native speakers, were used in the perception test, where, as a grand total, 140 Japanese people participated. The results were statistically analyzed contrasting two or three items each, like /tek/ and /teg/. When there was significant difference of perception rate of geminates, then, acoustic correlates of the difference was examined among the four factors, duration of a target consonant, ratio of a target consonant to preceding vowel duration, ratio of a target consonant to word duration and word duration. Our results correlated highly with word duration and ratio of a target consonant to word duration.We thus conclude that word duration and ratio of a target consonant to word duration are the strongest cues for the perception of gemination in English-like sound strings by Japanese speakers. This conclusion declines the widely accepted view which claims ratio of a target consonant to preceding vowel duration is the main cue for the perception of gemination in English.