Zur Wahrnehmung der sogenannten polnischen Nasalvokale – Ein Kapitel aus der Soziophonetik
On the Perception of the So-Called Polish Nasal Vowels – A Chapter From Sociophonetics)

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to analyze the auditory perception of the so-called Polish nasal vowels. Polish is the last Slavic language in which certain forms of nasal vowels still occur systematically and exercise their distinctive phonological function with different phonetic realizations. Since other Slavic languages have lost their nasal vowels over time, similar tendencies can be expected in contemporary Polish. This primarily leads to mechanisms based on assimilation-founded shifting of nasality to other segments or segmental parts, or its complete elimination when distinctive functions of nasality are maintained thanks to contextual or constitutive factors. Several perspectives must be exploited to effectively describe and, consequently, interpret the analyzed phenomenon, including phonological, phonetic, sociophonetic, didactic, and typological perspectives. Since auditory perception plays a crucial role in every act of communication realized phonetically, it must also be included in the analysis of nasal vowels. For example, it is necessary to examine whether oral or nasal pronunciation is perceived correctly and how the respective pronunciation is evaluated. The experiments conducted have shown that the perception of vocal nasality is significantly unstable and related to many factors of varying origin. One can conclude that there is no universally valid correct perception of nasal vowels. It has also been shown that the complex evaluation of phonetically corresponding texts is primarily motivated by sociophonetics.

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