The Effects of Real Words on the Pronunciation of Nonwords

Certain letter strings in the English language can be pronounced in multiple different ways. This study looked at how college students’ pronunciations of nonwords with ambiguous letter strings were influenced by real word primes. The nonwords were directly derived from real words with identical letter strings. Subjects saw real words that had either the default pronunciation or alternative pronunciation of that letter string. Results showed there were a higher proportion of alternative responses to nonwords primed by words with alternative pronunciations. These findings support previous research that shows the pronunciation of nonwords can be affected by priming or tasks that bias one pronunciation over another