Is fundamental frequency a cue to aspiration in initial stops?

One production and one perception experiment were conducted to investigate the interaction of consonant voicing and fundamental frequency at the onset of voicing (onset f0) in Cantonese, a tonal language. Consonantal voicing in English can affect onset f0 up to 100 ms after voicing onset, but existing research provides inconclusive information regarding the effects of voicing on f0 in tonal languages where f0 variability is constrained by the demands of the lexical tone system. Previous research on consonantal effects on onset f0 provides two contrasting theories: These effects may be automatic, resulting from physiological constraints inherent to the speech production mechanism or they may be controlled, produced as part of a process of cue enhancement for the perception of laryngeal contrasts. Results of experiment 1 showed that consonant aspiration affects onset f0 in Cantonese only within the first 10 ms following voicing onset, comparable to results for other tonal languages. Experiment 2 showed that Cantonese listeners can use differences in onset f0 to cue perception of the voicing contrast, but the minimum extent of f0 perturbation necessary for this is greater than is found in Cantonese production, and comparable to that observed in acoustic studies of nontonal languages. These results suggest that consonantal effects on onset f0 are at least partially controlled by talkers, but that their role in the perception of voicing/aspiration may be a consequence of language independent properties of audition rather than listeners' experience with the phonological contrasts of a specific language.published_or_final_versio

Cross-language study of voicing contrasts of stop consonants in Asian languages

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D96488 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

An Experimental Study on Societal Factors Affecting VOT of English Plosives

Plosives are integral components of English consonants. In phonetics, English plosives are classified into voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/. VOT (voice onset time) was defined as “the time interval between the burst that marks release of the stop closure and the onset of quasi-periodicity that reflects laryngeal vibration”. VOT is a significant acoustic feature and analytic parameter of plosives. Referring to Labov’s experimental model of linguistic variation analysis, this study investigates the influences of societal factors have on the VOT of English plosives.In this study, 15 English words with word-initial voiceless plosives /p, t, k/ and 15 word-initial voiced plosives /b, d, g/ were selected as reading material; meanwhile, 30 subjects were randomly recruited to read, and audio samples were collected. It is found that the two social factors (gender and regional dialect) selected in this experiment have influences in different degrees on the English plosive VOT of the subjects. The specific results are as follows.For gender, no significant difference exists between males and females, but the mean VOT of females is longer than that of males, which is basically consistent with previous research results. The underlying reasons of the gender VOT differences inferred by this paper can be physiological and sociophonetical. For regional dialects, the VOT of the subjects were primarily influenced by Southwest Mandarin and Min Dialect, in which the mean value of voiceless plosives was higher and the difference was greater for speakers of Southwest Mandarin, and the mean value of voiced plosives was higher and the difference was greater for speakers of Min Dialect. The results of this empirical study theoretically provide some reference for acoustic researches, and pedagogically, provide some implications for optimizations of English curriculums in university

Lexical Tone vs. F0 Effects on VOT in Cantonese

This study investigates the effects of lexical tone on the Voice Onset Time (VOT) of prevocalic stops in Cantonese. It builds on literature showing how various factors affect VOT without a resultant loss in phonological contrast and also ties in a body of research on tone and consonant interaction. The specific research questions addressed are (1) Does tone have an effect on VOT in Cantonese?; (2) If so, what kind of an effect does it have?; and (3) Is this effect purely an automatic articulatory consequence of F0 modulation or is this effect also mediated by lexical tone and hence a secondary cue that contributes towards maintaining phonological contrasts between different tonal categories? To address these questions, the speech of 6 native speakers (5 male and 1 female) of Hong Kong Cantonese was examined. A total of 80 tokens of words contrasting in tone and aspiration were analyzed for each speaker for a grand total of 480 tokens. Results from an ANOVA test showed that there is a statistically significant effect (

Voicing and Devoicing Rules in East and Southeast Asian Languages

Languages are composed of sounds that are produced by the vocal organs. These sounds can be split into two categories, voiceless and voiced. In general, based upon the International Phonetic Alphabet, there are more voiced sounds possible than voiceless sounds, with vowels, nasals, and approximants inherently voiced. After analyzing the separate phonetic inventories of 9 Asian languages representative of the major Asian language families (Arabic, Burmese, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese), it was found that all of them except Mandarin Chinese had far more voiced sounds than voiceless sounds as well. After isolating only stops and affricates, all the Asian languages were found to have more voiceless phonemes than voiced. In regards to voicing and devoicing rules, the data shows that there are more devoicing rules than voicing rules, which might be explained by the fact that most languages have more voiced phonemes, so naturally in order for a change in voicing to occur, it would be more likely for the larger number of voiced sounds to become devoiced, simply by probability. In addition, since languages possess more voiced than voiceless sounds, it would make sense to have more devoicing rules in order to create a voiced and voiceless alternation in order to avoid misinterpretation of sounds. These conclusions may not be valid because the sample size of the data is too small and a more thorough analysis of voicing and devoicing rules in Asian languages would need to be conducted

Effect of tones on voice onset time (VOT) in Cantonese aspirated stops

"A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, June 30, 2010."Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-24).Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 2010.The study investigated the possible interaction between VOT values associated with aspirated stops produced at six different lexical tones (high falling, high rising, mid level, mid-low falling, mid-low rising and mid-low level) in Cantonese. A total of 27 male Cantonese speakers were recruited and they were instructed to read phrases containing targeted CV syllables formed by the aspirated Cantonese stops (/ph/, /th/, and /kh/) and the vowel /a/ at the six tones. VOT analysis revealed that, across aspirated stops, tones in the upper tone register produced shorter VOT while those in the lower tone register had longer VOT values. In particular, mid-low rising tone showed the longest VOT than all other tones. This finding indicated an interaction between VOT and tone during Cantonese stop production is confirmed.published_or_final_versionSpeech and Hearing SciencesBachelorBachelor of Science in Speech and Hearing Science

Contrastive Analysis between Chinese and Indonesian Phonology and Implementation on Conversation Class

This study aims to find out the phonological characteristics of Indonesian Language and Mandarin language, their impact and application in learning Chinese conversations. This study will use descriptive comparative methods and surveys. Based on the data obtained, there are differences in the pronunciation of single Indonesian and Chinese vowels, namely vowel [y], [ɣ], [i]. Mandarin has triftong, which is [iou], [iao]. The consonants of Indonesian and Mandarin have similarities, but the pronunciation is different. The consonant of Indonesian is not distinguished from no aspirations and aspirations, based on no voices and voices. In suprasegmental features, such as tons, intonation, pressure, pauses, Mandarin is one of the tonal languages, whereas Indonesian is not a tonal language. In Indonesian, the pressure functions to distinguish meaning in the sentence level, but does not distinguish meaning at the word level. Whereas in Mandarin, the pressure is divided into word pressure and sentence pressure. In Indonesian, intonation plays an important role when distinguishing the meaning of sentences. Whereas in Mandarin, the rules for pronunciation of intonation are not strict. Pause in Indonesian and Mandarin, marked by the use of signs. The results of this study can help teachers determine and use appropriate learning techniques so that they can help, facilitate the needs, demands, and goals of students in pronunciation. &nbsp

Temporal articulatory stability, phonological variation, and lexical contrast preservation in diaspora Tibetan

This dissertation examines how lexical tone can be represented with articulatory gestures, and the ways a gestural perspective can inform synchronic and diachronic analysis of the phonology and phonetics of a language. Tibetan is chosen an example of a language with interacting laryngeal and tonal phonology, a history of tonogenesis and dialect diversification, and recent contact-induced realignment of the tonal and consonantal systems. Despite variation in voice onset time (VOT) and presence/absence of the lexical tone contrast, speakers retain a consistent relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures. Recent research has attempted to integrate tone into the framework of Articulatory Phonology through the addition of tone gestures. Unlike other theories of phonetics-phonology, Articulatory Phonology uniquely incorporates relative timing as a key parameter. This allows the system to represent contrasts instantiated not just in the presence or absence of gestures, but also in how gestures are timed with each other. Building on the different predictions of various timing relations, along with the historical developments in the language, hypotheses are generated and tested with acoustic and articulatory experiments. Following an overview of relevant theory, the second chapter surveys past literature on the history of sound change and present phonological diversity of Tibetic dialects. Whereas Old Tibetan lacked lexical tone, contrasted voiced and voiceless obstruents, and exhibited complex clusters, a series of overlapping sound changes have led to some modern varieties that are tone, lack clusters, and vary in the expression of voicing and aspiration. Furthermore, speakers in the Tibetan diaspora use a variety that has grown out of the contact between diverse Tibetic dialects. The state of the language and the dynamics of diaspora have created a situation ripe for sound change, including the recombination of elements from different dialects and, potentially, the loss of tone contrasts. The nature of the diaspora Tibetan is investigated through an acoustic corpus study. Recordings made in Kathmandu, Nepal, are being transcribed and forced-aligned into a useful audio corpus. Speakers in the corpus come from diverse backgrounds across and outside traditional Tibetan-speaking regions, but the analysis presented here focuses on speakers who grew up in diaspora, with a mixed input of Standard Tibetan (spyi skad) and other Tibetan varieties. Especially notable among these speakers is the high variability of voice onset time (VOT) and its interaction with tone. An analysis of this data in terms of the relative timing of oral, laryngeal, and tone gestures leads to the generation of hypotheses for testing using articulatory data. The articulatory study is conducted using electromagnetic articulography (EMA), and six Tibetan-speaking participants. The key finding is that the relative timing of consonant and vowel gestures is consistent across phonological categories and across speakers who do and do not contrast tone. This result leads to the conclusion that the relative timing of speech gestures is conserved and acquired independently. Speakers acquire and generalize a limited inventory of timing patterns, and can use timing patterns even when the conditioning environment for the development of those patterns, namely tone, has been lost

American Chinese learners’; acquisition of L2 Chinese affricates /ts/ and /tsh/

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://scitation.aip.org/content/asa/journal/poma/18/1/10.1121/1.4798223.Many studies on L2 speech learning focused on testing the L1 transfer hypothesis. In general, L2 phonemes were found to be merged with similar L1 phoneme to different degrees (Flege 1995). Few studies examined whether non-phonemic phonetic categories in L1 help or block the formation of new phonetic categories in L2. The current study examined the effect of L1 English consonantal clusters [ts] and [dz] on learning L2 Chinese affricates /ts/ and /tsh/. We studied duration and center of gravity (COG) of Chinese affricates /ts/ and /tsh/ produced by native Chinese speakers, novice American Chinese learners and advanced learners. In terms of duration, both learner groups showed contrast between L2 /ts/ and /tsh/, which is similar to native Chinese speakers' production. However, for COG, only the advanced learner group showed contrast between L2 /ts/ and /tsh/, which is similar to native speakers' production while the novice learner group did not show a COG difference between the two L2 affricates. The results suggest an early acquisition of the durational contrast between the L2 Chinese affricates and later acquisition of COG contrast between the two L2 affricates

Regularities and Irregularities in Chinese Historical Phonology

With a combination of methodologies from Western and Chinese traditional historical linguistics, this thesis is an attempt to survey and synthetically analyze the major sound changes in Chinese phonological history. It addresses two hypotheses – the Neogrammarian regularity hypothesis and the unidirectionality hypothesis – and tries to question their validity and applicability. Drawing from fourteen types of “regular” and “irregular” processes, the thesis argues that the origins and impetuses of sound change is far from just phonetic environment (“regular” changes) and lexical diffusion (“irregular” changes), and that sound change is not unidirectional because of the existence and significance of fortifying and bi/multidirectional changes. The thesis also examines the sociopolitical aspect of sound change through the discussion of language changes resulting from social, geographical and historical factors, suggesting that the study of sound change should be more interdisciplinary and miscellaneous in order to explain the phenomena more thoroughly and reach a better understanding of how human languages function both synchronically and diachronically