Voice Onset Time of Syllable-Initial Stops in Sixian Hakka: Isolated Syllables

Abstract

This study investigates the ”voice onset time” (VOT) variation in syllable-initial stops of Sixian Hakka in isolated syllables, according to factors including place of articulation (PoA), following vowel context, and the speakers' age and gender. Thirty-six participants provided speech recordings. They were required to repeat a randomized list of 36 speech stimuli constructed by using 6 syllable-initial stops [p, t, k, p^h, t^h, k^h] preceding 3 corner vowels [i, u, a] in 2 high-level tones [55, 55]. A total of 3,888 samples were measured for VOT values in PRAAT. The research results showed that the factors other than gender affected the VOT production of Hakka syllable-initial stops. In accordance with observations in previous sociolinguistic studies of gender, gender differences concerning the VOT absolute values were also observed despite showing no statistically significant differences. Furthermore, the factorial interaction between the stops' PoA and the following vowel context, which was discussed in detail, showed that vowel height has a stronger effect on VOT than vowel frontness. To conclude, this study substantially contributes to the understanding of VOT and its variation in Hakka, and to further comparisons of the VOT systems of stops between Hakka and other Chinese dialects or foreign languages, particularly for foreign spouses who immigrated to Hakka villages.