Phonological reduction in spoken word recognition.

In casual speech, speakers often produce reduced phonological variants of the intended spoken words. Although these reductions are not obligatory, they occur in a regular way and only in certain phonological environments. Nasal tapping is one of these allophonic processes. During nasal tapping words such as “center” are pronounced as “cenner.” Recent studies suggest that the recognition of word forms that have undergone nasal tapping is associated with substantial processing costs. The present set of experiments explores potential causes that may contribute to this effect. It is suggested that the perception of allophonic variants depends on the phonetic conditions under which they are produced and encountered.