Perception of Prothetic /e/ in #sC Utterances: Gating Data

Perception of an epenthetic vowel within illegal, nonnative, clusters has been reported for a number of stimulus vs. listener language situations. In this study we examine the perception of a prothetic /e/ before word-initial #sC clusters by Spanish vs. French listeners, using gated stimuli derived from naturally produced /#as/+C and /#es/+C utterances. Spanish listeners but not French listeners heard a leading /e/ in the early gates where only a short portion or no trace at all of the original vowel was left. The extent of this effect was not modulated by how much ill-formed the /s/+C sequences were in terms of universal sonority contour preferences.