DefinePK

Abstract

Across the world, natural languages prefer onset with large sonority distances to those with smaller distances (e.g., bw-bd--lb). And certain preferences are extendedeven to those languages which lack initial CC clusters. Are Sindhi speakers sensitive to onset sonority hierarchy? Does voicing difference play any role in perception and production of speakers?To approach these questions, here, we move to Sindhi, a cluster poor language. The reason was given by us that, in case, Sindhi native speakers were found sensitive to onsetsonority hierarchy, then ill-formed onsets should be repaired into well-formed ones (e.g., lbif →lebif), the worse-formed the onset, the more likely its repair, henceforth, its misidentification. To scrutinize these questions, the current study presents a corpus of data from Sindhi language illustrating the universal restrictions or language universals and typological range of variation among certain kinds of consonant clusters in syllable-initial position for instance, “bl” in block. The case study consists of two experiments: first experiment short or long judgment task (participants were directed to notify each stimulus as ‘short’ or ‘long’) andsecond experiment identity judgment task (participators were directed to judge the item whether it is “identical” or “non-identical”) are followed. Auditorystimuli wererecordedby aPashto speaker. In Pashto language alltypesof onsetclustersare attested.Participants were 20 native-Sindhi speakers and 20 Pashto students from Lasbela University in Pakistan. Results were coherent with the hypothesis, the current study displays universally dispreferred onset clusters are more frequently misperceived than universally preferred ones. The current findings suggest thatthe Sindhi speakers were found sensitive to onset sonority hierarchy and voicing remained significant in perception but insignificant in production.