Abstract
Variation in lexical tone systems across dialects presents a perceptual challenge to speech adaptation. For instance, several Mandarin regional dialects have four phonological tones, but the phonetic realization of those tones differs considerably. Previous studies have demonstrated that listeners readily accommodate dialectal variation in lexical tone systems through incidental exposure. The present study examined whether adaptation was facilitated through the presence of explicit minimal-pair tone contrasts or increased exposure to the dialect. We found that rapid adaptation to the novel tone system was persistent even when minimal-pair sentences were removed from the stimuli and about one minute of incidental exposure was available with no repetition. Minimal-pair contrast was not necessary for adaptation. Increased exposure through repeated trials reliably enhanced sensitivity to the novel tone system.