EFFECTS OF VOICING LENGTH IN THE PRODUCTION OF [Z] BY L1-SPANISH SPEAKERS ON THE PERCEPTUAL IDENTIFICATION OF MINIMAL PAIRS BY BRAZILIAN LISTENERS

In this study, we aim to investigate the effects of the degree of voicing in the fricative [z] produced by L1 Spanish speakers on the distinction between the categories of ‘voiceless’ and ‘voiced’ consonants by Brazilian judges. Speech data were collected from six L1 Spanish speakers who had been living in Brazil for less than twelve months. From the recordings and manipulations of different degrees of voicing in the fricatives (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% of the total duration of the fricative), an identification task was built on TP Software (Rauber et al. 2012). Thirty-five Brazilian participants did this task. The results indicate that voicing the consonant all the way through was not a necessary condition for the identification of the fricative as voiced. It was also verified that the pattern with voicing throughout 25% of the fricative proved more difficult to identify. Both the inferential analysis and the verification of the data produced by each individual participant showed that this latter pattern cannot be considered to be voiceless in all cases.