• ISSN: 2382-6282 (Print); 2972-3108 (Online)
    • Abbreviated Title: Int. J. Lang. Lit. Linguist.
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    • DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL
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HOME > Archives > 2026 > Volume 12 Number 1 (2026) >
IJLLL 2026 Vol.12(1): 23-27
DOI: 10.18178/IJLLL.2026.12.1.625

Perceptual Cue Weighting of Mandarin High Vowels by Native Japanese Speakers

Wenhui Zhu 1 and Sun-Hee Lee 2
1. School of Humanity and Science, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China
2. College of Chinese Studies, Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Email: zhuwh@sustech.edu.cn (W.H.Z.); lishanxi@cufs.ac.kr (S.H.L.)
*Corresponding author

Manuscript received August 20, 2025; revised December 10, 2025; accepted February 27, 2026.

Abstract—This study investigates native Japanese speakers’ perception of Mandarin high vowels, demonstrating that learners exhibit weighting of the second formant and third formant frequency cues in the perception. Twenty-seven native Japanese participants performed an XAB perceptual categorization task on synthesized stimuli. The results showed that all participants significantly relied on the F2 frequency, which is associated with the backness feature, in their perception of the stimuli; whereas they did not exhibit a significant reliance on the F3 frequency, related to the roundness feature. The result suggests that the backness feature, not roundness feature, is salient in learners’ perception due to the characteristics of Japanese vowels system. The study provides new data for the field of perceptual cue weighting by examining the weighting of phonetic cues and distinctive features in Mandarin high vowels by native Japanese learners. The outcomes are also educationally significant, underscoring the necessity for tailored perception training for learners from various linguistic backgrounds to improve their acquisition of target second language sounds.

Keywords—perceptual cue weighting, distinctive feature, vowel formant, Japanese, mandarin Chinese

Cite: Wenhui Zhu and Sun-Hee Lee, "Perceptual Cue Weighting of Mandarin High Vowels by Native Japanese Speakers," International Journal of Languages, Literature and Linguistics, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 23-27, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

 

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