Perceptual dissimilation of /l/ and (not) /n/

We test Ohala’s (1993) hypothesis that phonological dissimilation can result from perceptual errors. Using a task in which American English speakers hear and orthographically transcribe nonce words, we test whether they are more likely to omit an acoustically present /l/ or /n/ when heard in a word where another token of the same sound is present. We find that this is the case for /l/ but not for /n/. These results mirror the actual prevalence of dissimilation in American English, where /l/-dissimilation occurs occasionally, but /n/-dissimilation rarely or never.