When Two Communities' Speech Converges, Listener Accuracy Collapses
The decisive test of the learned-cue claim, because it dissociates the cue from the speaker. Where two communities' speech has converged, listener accuracy falls to roughly 55%, close to chance, even though the speakers' anatomy is unchanged (Race Identification in American English, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2024; Li, Purse and Holliday 2022, JASA 152(5) 2617). If the cue were anatomical, convergence could not move the number.
Questions this Concept answers
- Why does that collapse in accuracy argue that listeners are using learned speech rather than anatomy?
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The decisive test of the learned-cue claim, because it dissociates the cue from the speaker. Where two communities' speech has converged, listener accuracy falls to roughly 55%, close to chance, even though the speakers' anatomy is unchanged (Race Identification in American English, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 2024; Li, Purse and Holliday 2022, JASA 152(5) 2617). If the cue were anatomical, convergence could not move the number.
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