Consonant effects on tonal registers in Jiashan Wu

Bing'Er Jiang,Jianjing Kuang

doi:10.3765/plsa.v1i0.3730

Abstract

Breathy phonation is known as the primary cue of the “voiced” stops in Wu dialects, and is associated with the lower tonal register. This study discusses the phonetic realization of the tonal register of Wu dialects by measuring relative prominence of the first harmonic to some higher-frequency components in the spectrum, F0 and periodicity (CPP) of Jiashan Wu monosyllabic words. We find that in Jiashan Wu, the phonetic targets for tonal register contrasts are a steeper spectral-slope and a lower F0, which is consistent cross all consonant manners, while the articulatory realization varies among different types of consonants.

Highlights

The Wu dialect is a Chinese dialect spoken in Shanghai, Zhejiang province and southern Jiangsu province of China
This study examines the register contrast in the Jiashan Wu dialect with a focus on consonant effect
The non-universal predictability of H1*-H2* further implies that those so-called "breathy voice" might not necessarily be characterized by the same feature; at least not for the Jiashan Wu dialect, where there is no significant difference in open phase between modal and breathy phonation

Summary

Introduction

The Wu dialect is a Chinese dialect spoken in Shanghai, Zhejiang province and southern Jiangsu province of China. Jiashan Wu, along with other Wu dialects, is a tone language with two registers. This study investigates consonant effects on register contrast in Jiashan Wu. According to Yip (1980, 2002), a register feature [+/- Upper] divides the tonal space according to pitch: the register feature [+Upper] indicates a higher pitch range and [-Upper] indicates a lower pitch range. The upper register always has a higher pitch than the lower one. Yip further proposes that a tone feature [+/-high] subdivides registers into two halves, creating four tones. The two sets of features are able to represent the tonal inventory of the Jiashan dialect. The numbers in parenthesis are Chao numbers, another way of indicating the tonal contour. The numbers in parenthesis are Chao numbers, another way of indicating the tonal contour. 5 stands for the highest pitch and 1 stands for the lowest pitch

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