An Acoustic Analysis on Mono-Syllabic Tones in the Ruian Wu Dialect

Abstract

The Ruian dialect, part of the Oujiang branch of Wu Chinese, is situated at the intersection of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions. It is generally accepted that this dialect has eight distinct tones. Previous studies primarily employed traditional methods of auditory transcription, leading to discrepancies in tone values and contours, and lacking the necessary precision for an objective tonal system description.This study focuses on the Ruian dialect and conducts an acoustic study on speech samples from three generations of participantselderly, middle-aged, and youngdescribing their tonal patterns. The study concludes that the tonal systems of the elderly and middle-aged participants are generally stable, with the following tonal patterns: Yinping (44), Yangping (331), Yinshang (35), Yangshang (14), Yinqu (51), Yangqu (22), Yinru (323), and Yangru (212). In contrast, the younger generation has seen a change in the Rusheng (), shifting from contour tones to falling tones, where the tone value of Yinru is 32 and Yangru's is 21.