Syllable Identification in Kannada Among Literates and Illiterates

Abstract

Previous work on the mental representation of spoken language in illiterate adults has dealt with metalinguistic abilities more than with perceptual
processing. However, the possibility of an influence of literacy on speech perception should not be neglected. Learning to read and write in an alphabetic
system entails the ability to analyze speech intentionally into phonemic units. It also contributes to the elaboration of new processing strategies. The phonemic
representation that is required in reading and writing provides the basis for processes of spoken word recognition, consisting of finding the best match
between a sequence of the discrete segment and a lexical entry.