Why does phonetic adaptation, when learning a second language, particularly focus on vowel formant transition regions, rather than steady-state vowel formants?

💡 Explanation

Phonetic adaptation emphasizes vowel formant transition regions because these transitions contain crucial coarticulatory information about surrounding consonants, therefore learners adjust their articulation based on these dynamic cues, rather than relying solely on the static information from steady-state vowels, which provide less context.

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