Development of Phonetic Contrasts in Cantonese Tone Acquisition

Abstract

Purpose Previous studies showed both early and late acquisition of Cantonese tones based on transcription data using different criteria, but very little acoustic data were reported. Our study examined Cantonese tone acquisition using both transcription and acoustic data, illustrating the early and protracted aspects of Cantonese tone acquisition. Method One hundred fifty-nine Cantonese-speaking children aged between 2;1 and 6;0 (years;months) and 10 reference speakers participated in a tone production experiment based on picture naming. Natural production materials with 30 monosyllabic words were transcribed by two native judges. Acoustic measurements included overall tonal dispersion and specific contrasts between similar tone pairs: ratios of average fundamental frequency height for the level tones (T1, T3, T6), magnitude of rise and inflection point for the rising tones (T2, T5), magnitude of fall, H1*–H2*, and harmonic-to-noise ratio for the low tones (T4, T6). Auditory assessment of creakiness for T4 was also included. Results Children in the eldest group (aged 5;7–6;0) were still not completely adultlike in production accuracy, although two thirds of them had production accuracy over 90%. Children in all age groups had production accuracy significantly higher than chance level, and they could produce the major acoustic contrasts between specific tone pairs similarly as reference speakers. Fine phonetic detail of the inflection point and creakiness was more challenging for children. Conclusion Our findings illustrated the multifaceted aspects (both early and late) of Cantonese tone acquisition and called for a wider perspective on how to define successful phonological acquisition. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.11594853

Linguistic Tone and Non-Linguistic Pitch Imitation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Cross-Linguistic Investigation

“…In addition, for the acoustic comparison of the rising tonal pair in Cantonese (CT23 vs. CT25), they additionally show a covert contrast at the temporal distinction of "inflection point". The minimum F0 value appears slightly earlier in the high-rising CT25 compared to that in low-rising CT23 along the pitch contour (Mok et al, 2020).…”

“…Only a main effect of language on the linear term (pitch slope) of level tones was found, with Cantonese-speaking children eliciting a more falling F0 slope compared to Mandarin-speaking ones. It was reported that Cantonese speakers tended to produce a slightly falling contour in their actual realization of three level tones, especially for the low-level and mid-level tones (Mok et al, 2020;Zhang et al, 2018). Thus, the cross-linguistic differences in the acoustic realization of level tones could be attributed to the influence of long-term native language experience.…”

“…The participants were 6-to 11-year-old high-functioning autism without major cognitive delays [nonverbal intelligence quotient (IQ) ⩾70; mean = 105.23] and without severe language delays (i.e., able to use full, complex sentences). The school-age children were chosen since neurotypical preschoolers are still fine-tuning their control over coordinating pitch range, slope, and curvature in the production of native tonal categories (Mok et al, 2019(Mok et al, , 2020Rattanasone et al, 2018;Wong, 2013). The obtained language score in Cantonese-speaking participants was averaged across three subtests (Textual Comprehension Test, Expressive Nominal Vocabulary Test, and Test of Hong Kong Cantonese Grammar) in the Hong Kong Cantonese Oral Language Assessment Scale (T'sou et al, 2006).…”

Why Aren’t All Cantonese Tones Equally Confusing to English Listeners?

“…Taken together, the previous and present findings support PAM-S in the context of native English listeners and Cantonese heritage children in an English-speaking country. Like the previous study (Kan & Schmid, 2019), our hypothesized assimilation patterns were based on (1) the acoustic similarities between tones and intonations and (2) previous empirical findings (Francis et al, 2008; Mok et al, 2020). Although our discrimination results clearly supported the hypothesized assimilation patterns, ideally, an assimilation task would have strengthened our assimilation claims.…”

“…PAM-S yields several predictions for English listeners' Cantonese tone discrimination. Acoustically, a falling tone resembles a statement intonation, whereas a rising tone resembles a question intonation (Ladefoged, 2006;Mok et al, 2020). Compared with a falling tone, a level tone resembles a statement intonation less.…”