Abstract
An experiment was conducted to determine whether intensity and duration are correlated with tonal differences. Taiwanese was chosen because it has five contrastive tones, which are high, mid, low, rising, and falling. In this dialect the syllable [si] occurs on all five tones. Preliminary results reveal that (1) there is a direct correlation between F0 and both duration and intensity; (2) falling tone has higher intensity and shorter duration than rising tone; (3) the rate of change of F0 is greater in falling tone than in rising tone; and (4) both in falling and rising tones, the rate of change of F0 is greater in the second half of the entire duration than in the first half. These results are discussed in terms of possible physiological explanations, such as the use of a higher subglottal pressure to produce a higher F0. [Research supported by NSF.]
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