Abstract
Black Miao is the most famous five-level-tone language (reported in Kwan1966), which has been a challenge for tonal theories; however, the phonetic realizations of these five level tones have not been studied. This study thus examines the same Black Miao dialect as the one Fang-Kuei Li recorded. We conducted both production and perception experiments in the field to understand how this five-level-tone contrast is possible. Simultaneous EGG and acoustic recordings were made in the production experiment; the perception experiment consisted of an identification task and a discrimination task. Preliminary results show that these five level tones do not merely contrast in F0; non-modal phonations play an important role in the tonal contrasts. Vocal fry and tense voice help distinguish 11 and 55 from other tones, while breathy phonation distinguishes 33 from 22 and 44. Therefore, the tonal contrasts are optimal in dispersion in a 2-D (F0 and phonation) tone space.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
