This study investigates the perception of the three Mandarin high vowels /i, u, y/ after dental, retroflex, and palatal fricatives and affricates (/s/-/ʦ/-/ʦʰ/; /ʂ/-/tʂ/-/tʂʰ/, and /ʨ/, /ʨʰ/, /ɕ/) by native English speakers. The results of the perceptual identification and categorization experiments show that among the three target vowels, the high front rounded vowel /y/ presents the greatest challenge for native English speakers. They have a significantly higher tendency to confuse /y/ with the Mandarin high-back rounded vowel /u/ compared to the Mandarin high-front unrounded vowel /i/, as they perceptually classified /y/ and /u/ into the same English vowel category /u/. The findings of the study suggest that native English speakers adopt a perceptual strategy that differs from that of native Japanese and Korean speakers, relying heavier on the feature of roundness as opposed to backness in perceiving the Mandarin /y/. This study contributes to the perceptual cue weighting field by examining the weighting of phonetic cues (i.e., distinctive features) in Mandarin high vowels by native English speakers. These results hold pedagogical significance as they highlight the importance of targeted perception training for learners of different language backgrounds to enhance both their recognition and reproduction of second language sounds.

本研究调查了牙擦音、卷舌擦音和腭擦音和塞擦音之后的三个普通话高元音 /i、u、y/ 的感知 (/s/-/ʦ/-/ʦʰ/; /ʂ/-/tʂ/-/ tʂʰ/、/ʨ/、/ʨʰ/、/ɕ/），由英语为母语的人使用。感知识别和分类实验的结果表明，在三个目标元音中，高前圆唇元音/y/对英语母语者来说是最大的挑战。与普通话高前圆唇元音 /i/ 相比，他们更容易将 /y/ 与普通话高后圆唇元音 /u/ 混淆，因为他们在感知上将 /y/ 和 /u/ 归类为相同的英语元音类别/u/。研究结果表明，以英语为母语的人采取的感知策略不同于以日语和韩语为母语的人，在感知普通话/y/时，更依赖于圆的特征而不是后的特征。这项研究通过检查以英语为母语的人在普通话高元音中的语音线索（即独特特征）的权重，为感知线索权重领域做出了贡献。这些结果具有教学意义，因为它们强调了对不同语言背景的学习者进行有针对性的感知训练以增强他们对第二语言声音的识别和再现的重要性。