To what extent does one’s native language shape speech perception? Which aspects of language are universal, and which vary across languages?
Cognitive science has long focused on a limited set of languages, often from WEIRD populations, overlooking linguistic and cultural diversity. Yet a growing body of research shows that early exposure to a language shapes the perception of sounds and grammatical rules.
My research is situated within this perspective. Trained in Semitic linguistics, I study the relationship between linguistic structures and cognitive processes to distinguish what is universal from what is language-specific. My master’s thesis examined code-mixing among Yemeni Arabic speakers learning Hebrew.
Today, in my PhD thesis, supervised by Isabelle Dautriche at the CRPN and by Clément François at the LPL, I explore perceptual narrowing by comparing early language development in French and Moroccan Arabic.