Prosodic Variation in Cantonese-English Code-Mixed Speech

Abstract

This study investigates the prosodic features of Cantonese-English code-mixed speech. It is found that the prosody of the matrix language is hardly altered, while the prosody of the embedded language is assimilated to that of the matrix language. That is, the rhythmic pattern is shifted towards syllable-timing, whereas the variations in the F 0 pattern are mainly in the word-final syllable: for a stressed syllable the F 0 contour turns flat, while for a posttonic unstressed syllable the F 0 contour falls more steeply than in monolingual English speech. Such F 0 variations can be explained by the phonological interaction of English lexical stress and Cantonese lexical tone. In addition, the F 0 of the embedded English word tends to become higher due to the embedding effect.