Language Sounds as Cues in Judging Characteristics of National Groups

This study investigated whether language sounds of a given national group could be significant cues for judging characteristics of that group by people from a different culture. Korean and Hindi were employed as stimulus languages, while 136 undergraduates, divided randomly into five groups, were used as Ss. Two groups of Ss were presented with the 8ounds of the languages, two groups with the sounds and the names of the languages, and one group with the names of the national groups. Ss were asked to rate the characteristics of the national groups on twenty semantic differential scales. Results showed that there were no significant differences under the afore-mentioned three treatments. Korean and Hindi language sounds produced very similar judgments on the characteristics of the speakers. However, different scales were judged significantly in a given direction under different stimulus conditions, and the sounds of the language resulted in more directional judgments than those of the names of the national groups.