Suprasegmental features of Chinese‐accented English.

Abstract

This study compares read speech by Cantonese and Mandarin learners of English with those by native speakers of English. The utterances produced by learners of English are all rated as accented. We aim to identify measurable prosodic differences leading to such perceptual judgment. The prosodic correlates we examine include both syllable duration and pitch values. Our preliminary results reveal in generally mean syllable durations of Cantonese and Mandarins learners are very similar, and much longer than that of the native speakers of English. It is also found that all learners’ production exhibits much greater variations in duration than native speakers. Examination on duration of stressed and unstressed syllables reveals more differences across L1 groups. With regard to pitch correlates, a much wider pitch range is found in the production of native speakers of English than in those of both Mandarin and Cantonese learners of English. Of the Chinese learners, Mandarin group employ a wider pitch range than Cantonese. Moreover, Cantonese learners’ speech is found dominated by a rather “flat” overall pitch contour. We propose that the prosodic deviations in Chinese learners’ English from a native speaker can be accounted for from the perspective of rhythmic and tone system in Chinese.