Perceptual correlates of Cantonese tones

Abstract

This study investigated measurements related to average f0 level and f0 change over eight consecutive sections of the whole vocalic segment, for their roles as both acoustic and perceptual correlates of Cantonese lexical tones. Twenty-four CV Cantonese words, making up four sets of words that minimally contrasted in the six Cantonese tones (tones 55, 25, 33, 21, 23, and 22) were read by 10 speakers once in random order. Ten expert listeners and twenty naive listeners were asked to identify the words. Discriminant analysis showed that, in both production and perception, direction and magnitude of f0 change over the later part (6th and 7th sections) of the vocalic segment were important correlates of tone identity. f0 change provided separation both between contour tones (tones 25, 23, 21) and level tones (tones 55, 33, 22) as well as among contour tones. Average f0 provided separation among the level tones. Findings correspond well with description of tones based on Wang's phonological features of ‘rising’, ‘contour’, ‘falling’, and ‘height’.