The effect of neutral tone on the f0 peak alignment in Standard Chinese

Abstract

The f0 peaks sometimes are realized after the right-hand boundary of their host syllables when followed by syllables that carry one of the four tones in Standard Chinese. Further, tone 1 (H) and tone 2 (R) exhibit different peak alignment patterns. This study investigates the effect of neutral tone on the alignment of f0 peaks with their host syllables in tone 1 and tone 2 at normal speaking rate. When a syllable is unstressed, it does not carry any of the four tones, but is said to be in the neutral tone. The greatest amount of peak delay was found on tone 2 when it was followed by one or two neutral tone syllables. The f0 peaks were aligned pretty close to the C−V boundary of the following syllable, and in many cases even across it. The peak on tone 1 was delayed the most in the context of two neutral tone syllables, always being realized after the right-hand boundary of its host syllable, and the least before a full tone syllable. The different alignment patterns are attributable to the inherent tonal properties of tone 1 and tone 2, and the phonological analysis of neutral tone.