Tonal Language Speakers Research Articles

English and Thai Speakers’ Perception of Mandarin Tones

<p>Language learners’ language experience is predicted to display a significant effect on their accurate perception of foreign language sounds (Flege, 1995). At the superasegmental level, there is still a debate regarding whether tone language speakers are better able to perceive foreign lexical tones than non-tone language speakers (i.e Lee et al., 1996; Burnham & Brooker, 2002). The current study aimed to shed some light on this issue. Specifically, 24 adult Thai and 21 adult English speakers, who had no knowledge on Mandarin prior to participation in the study, were recruited. The participants’ accuracy in the perception of 4 Mandarin tones (T1, T2, T3, T4) was individually examined using an identification test. 288 stimuli of /ti/, /ta/, /tu/, /tʂhi/, /tʂha/, and /tʂhu/ produced in 4 Mandarin tones were prepared. The stimuli were embedded in a carrier sentence, and were produced by a female and a male native Mandarin speaker. According to the results, (1) none of the participants achieved 100% accuracy in any of the perception tests; (2) in the perception of Mandarin T1 and T4, the Thai speakers significantly outperformed the English speakers; (3) the Thai speakers and the English speakers displayed very similar degrees of difficulty in the perception of Mandarin T2 and T3; (4) the Thai participants’ most serious confusion was in the discrimination of T2-T3, whereas the English participants showed significant confusion in the identification of T1-T2 and T2-T3. The findings suggest that tone language speakers may benefit more from their L1 in the perception of foreign lexical tones than did the non-tone language speakers. However, the degree of the beneficial effect identified was limited.</p>

Effects of tonal language background on tests of temporal sequencing in children

Objective: The aims of the present study were to determine the effects of language background on the performance of the pitch pattern sequence test (PPST) and duration pattern sequence test (DPST). As temporal order sequencing may be affected by age and working memory, these factors were also studied. Design: Performance of tonal and non-tonal language speakers on PPST and DPST were compared. Study sample: Twenty-eight native Mandarin (tonal language) speakers and twenty-nine native Malay (non-tonal language) speakers between seven to nine years old participated in this study. Results: The results revealed that relative to native Malay speakers, native Mandarin speakers demonstrated better scores on the PPST in both humming and verbal labeling responses. However, a similar language effect was not apparent in the DPST. An age effect was only significant in the PPST (verbal labeling). Finally, no significant effect of working memory was found on the PPST and the DPST. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the PPST is affected by tonal language background, and highlight the importance of developing different normative values for tonal and non-tonal language speakers.

Tone-language speakers show hemispheric specialization and differential cortical processing of contour and interval cues for pitch

Electrophysiological studies demonstrate that the neural coding of pitch is modulated by language experience and the linguistic relevance of the auditory input; both rightward and leftward asymmetries have been observed in the hemispheric specialization for pitch. In music, pitch is encoded using two primary features: contour (patterns of rises and falls) and interval (frequency separation between tones) cues. Recent evoked potential studies demonstrate that these “global” (contour) and “local” (interval) aspects of pitch are processed automatically (but bilaterally) in trained musicians. Here, we examined whether alternate forms of pitch expertise, namely, tone-language experience (i.e., Chinese), influence the early detection of contour and intervallic deviations within ongoing pitch sequences. Neuroelectric mismatch negativity (MMN) potentials were recorded in Chinese speakers and English-speaking nonmusicians in response to continuous pitch sequences with occasional global or local deviations in the ongoing melodic stream. This paradigm allowed us to explore potential cross-language differences in the hemispheric weighting for contour and interval processing of pitch. Chinese speakers showed differential pitch encoding between hemispheres not observed in English listeners; Chinese MMNs revealed a rightward bias for contour processing but a leftward hemispheric laterality for interval processing. In contrast, no asymmetries were observed in the English group. Collectively, our findings suggest tone-language experience sensitizes auditory brain mechanisms for the detection of subtle global/local pitch changes in the ongoing auditory stream and exaggerates functional asymmetries in pitch processing between cerebral hemispheres.

The Effects of Absolute Pitch and Tone Language on Pitch Processing and Encoding in Musicians

Absolute pitch (AP) is the rare ability to identify or produce a specific pitch without a reference pitch, which appears to be more prevalent in tone-language speakers than non-tone-language speakers. Numerous studies support a close relationship between AP, music, and language. Despite this relationship, the extent to which these factors contribute to the processing and encoding of pitch has not yet been investigated. Addressing this research question would provide insights into the relationship between music and language, as well as the mechanisms of AP. To this aim, we recruited AP musicians and non-AP musicians who were either tone-language (Mandarin and Cantonese) or non-tone language speakers. Participants completed a zero- and one-back working memory task using music and non-music (control) stimuli. In general, AP participants had better accuracy and faster reaction times than participants without AP. This effect remained even after controlling for the age at which participants began formal music lessons. We did not observe a performance advantage afforded by speaking a tone language, nor a cumulative advantage afforded by having AP and being a tone-language speaker.

Top-down linguistic categories dominate over bottom-up acoustics in lexical tone processing

Native tonal-language speakers exhibit reduced sensitivity to lexical tone differences within categories when compared to across categories (i.e., a top-down linguistic influence). However, increasing evidence suggests enhanced sensitivities to lexical tones among musically trained individuals (bottom-up influence), though previous studies examined non-tonal language speakers processing lexical tones. We investigated the relative contribution of top-down and bottom-up processing of lexical tones when both strategies are available. Seventeen native Mandarin speakers with extensive musical training completed a music test and a lexical tone discrimination task. The music test validated their enhanced pitch-processing abilities. The lexical tone discrimination task measured participants’ lexical tone sensitivities along a continuum. Results were compared to existing data from Mandarin non-musicians and English speaking musicians (Zhao & Kuhl, 2012). Despite their enhanced bottom-up pitch processing, Mandarin musicians’ performance exhibited patterns similar to Mandarin non-musicians, reflecting the dominant influence of linguistic categories (p = 0.504). Their sensitivities were also lower than English-speaking musicians (p = 0.011). However, further regression analysis suggests that bottom-up processing still plays a role in Mandarin musicians: their within-category tone discrimination is predicted by their musical pitch discrimination scores, similar to English musicians but opposite Mandarin non-musicians.

Perception of Melodic Contour and Intonation in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Evidence From Mandarin Speakers.

Tone language experience benefits pitch processing in music and speech for typically developing individuals. No known studies have examined pitch processing in individuals with autism who speak a tone language. This study investigated discrimination and identification of melodic contour and speech intonation in a group of Mandarin-speaking individuals with high-functioning autism. Individuals with autism showed superior melodic contour identification but comparable contour discrimination relative to controls. In contrast, these individuals performed worse than controls on both discrimination and identification of speech intonation. These findings provide the first evidence for differential pitch processing in music and speech in tone language speakers with autism, suggesting that tone language experience may not compensate for speech intonation perception deficits in individuals with autism.

Universality and language-specific experience in the perception of lexical tone and pitch

ABSTRACTTwo experiments focus on Thai tone perception by native speakers of tone languages (Thai, Cantonese, and Mandarin), a pitch–accent (Swedish), and a nontonal (English) language. In Experiment 1, there was better auditory-only and auditory–visual discrimination by tone and pitch–accent language speakers than by nontone language speakers. Conversely and counterintuitively, there was better visual-only discrimination by nontone language speakers than tone and pitch–accent language speakers. Nevertheless, visual augmentation of auditory tone perception in noise was evident for all five language groups. In Experiment 2, involving discrimination in three fundamental frequency equivalent auditory contexts, tone and pitch–accent language participants showed equivalent discrimination for normal Thai speech, filtered speech, and violin sounds. In contrast, nontone language listeners had significantly better discrimination for violin sounds than filtered speech and in turn speech. Together the results show that tone perception is determined by both auditory and visual information, by acoustic and linguistic contexts, and by universal and experiential factors.

Auditory perception of temporal order: A comparison between tonal language speakers with and without non-tonal language experience.

It has been shown recently that temporal order perception is modulated by language environments. The present study focused on the specific question whether a secondary language experience influences temporal order perception by comparing the temporal order thresholds (TOTs) between Chinese subjects with and without a secondary non-tonal language (i.e., English) experience. Besides monaurally presented paired clicks, binaurally presented two different types of tone pairs were used in order to better capture a potential difference between tonal and non-tonal languages. The results showed a non-significant language effect on monaurally presented click TOTs, but a significant language effect for binaurally presented tone TOTs. Compared to click performance, Chinese subjects without English proficiency demonstrated a significantly lower TOT only for close frequency tone pairs, while Chinese subjects with English proficiency demonstrated lower TOTs for both close frequency and distant frequency tone pairs. These results confirm on the one hand a common and language independent temporal mechanism for perceiving the order of two monaurally presented stimuli, and indicate on the other hand specific mechanisms of neuronal plasticity for perceiving the order of frequency-related auditory stimuli for tonal language speakers with or without a secondary non-tonal language experience.

Difficulty in the acquisition of Mandarin high level and high falling tones by Cantonese learners

Native speakers of tone languages commonly have difficulty discriminating tones with the same phonological function (Huang, 2001), such as Cantonese high level and high falling tones; however, acquisition of such tones with distinctive phonological status in a second language (L2) remains unclear. This study tested 34 Cantonese learners before and after training on Mandarin high level, mid-rising, and high falling tones. Perception was evaluated using a forced-choice identification task, and nine native speakers of Mandarin judged productions from repetition and narrative tasks. Despite improvement in post-tests, perception of high level and high falling tones was found to be more difficult than mid-rising tone in both pre- and post- tests. Misidentification patterns also showed more confusion between high level and high falling tones than other tone pairings, but no effect of training was observed. Compared to the perception results, high falling tone was produced more frequently as high level tone, particularly in the narrative task before and after the training. The results suggest that L2 tone acquisition is complicated by the complex phonological correspondence between L1 and L2 tones. [Research supported by Language Learning Research Grant.]

Hemispheric asymmetry in processing low- and high-pass filtered Cantonese speech in tonal and non-tonal language speakers

In auditory perception, a right hemisphere (RH)/left ear advantage(LEA) for low-pass filtered stimuli and a left hemisphere (LH)/right ear advantage(REA) for high-pass filtered stimuli have been reported. Here we investigated how tonal language experience modulates this hemispheric asymmetry. We recruited Cantonese, Mandarin (tonal languages), and English (non-tonal language) speakers, and asked them to recognise dichotically presented Cantonese speech pairs in either high- or low-pass filtered conditions. The results showed that in perception accuracy, whereas English speakers demonstrated the typical RH/LEA for low-pass filtered stimuli and LH/REA for high-pass filtered stimuli, for both high- and low-pass filtered stimuli, Cantonese speakers had similarly high accuracy in the two ears, and Mandarin speakers had higher right ear accuracy. In addition, Cantonese speakers had a preference to report the stimulus presented to the right ear; Mandarin speakers showed a similar, insignificant trend of preference, whereas English speakers showed no preference. This result is consistent with the hypothesis of language-experience-dependent specialisation of the LH in auditory perception, in contrast to an experience-independent general auditory or linguistic mechanism. While English speakers showed the typical hemispheric asymmetry in auditory perception, the automaticity of LH language processing pathways in Cantonese speakers resulted in no accuracy difference between the two ears, and a right ear preference regardless of the frequency condition. In contrast, although Mandarin speakers did not understand Cantonese, they generalised their tonal language experience to Cantonese speech perception and had a REA even in the perception of low-pass filtered Cantonese speech.

Defending Kakraba: Promoting Intercultural Curiosity

An earlier article of mine introducing the question of how African speakers of tone languages may audit instrumental music played by their own traditional musicians was criticised as a piece of ‘colonial essentialism’ by the African musicologist Kofi Agawu in his writings on ‘Representing African Music’. This response presents more biographical information on the Ghanaian master musician Kakraba Lobi, along with a discussion of the findings of other scholars who researched the music of his instrument, the gyil. Further evidence from Uganda on instrumental representation of music is then provided, lending weight to the argument that Ugandan instrumentalists habitually communicate texts embedded within their musical performances. The final section suggests that there is a consequent need to research not only how composers incorporate texts but also how their listeners experience such instrumental performance. It ends by reiterating the need for enquiry among listeners in partnership with careful analysis and observation of the musicking that they audit.

Left hemisphere lateralization for lexical and acoustic pitch processing in Cantonese speakers as revealed by mismatch negativity

For nontonal language speakers, speech processing is lateralized to the left hemisphere and musical processing is lateralized to the right hemisphere (i.e., function-dependent brain asymmetry). On the other hand, acoustic temporal processing is lateralized to the left hemisphere and spectral/pitch processing is lateralized to the right hemisphere (i.e., acoustic-dependent brain asymmetry). In this study, we examine whether the hemispheric lateralization of lexical pitch and acoustic pitch processing in tonal language speakers is consistent with the patterns of function- and acoustic-dependent brain asymmetry in nontonal language speakers. Pitch contrast in both speech stimuli (syllable /ji/ in Experiment 1) and nonspeech stimuli (harmonic tone in Experiment 1; pure tone in Experiment 2) was presented to native Cantonese speakers in passive oddball paradigms. We found that the mismatch negativity (MMN) elicited by lexical pitch contrast was lateralized to the left hemisphere, which is consistent with the pattern of function-dependent brain asymmetry (i.e., left hemisphere lateralization for speech processing) in nontonal language speakers. However, the MMN elicited by acoustic pitch contrast was also left hemisphere lateralized (harmonic tone in Experiment 1) or showed a tendency for left hemisphere lateralization (pure tone in Experiment 2), which is inconsistent with the pattern of acoustic-dependent brain asymmetry (i.e., right hemisphere lateralization for acoustic pitch processing) in nontonal language speakers. The consistent pattern of function-dependent brain asymmetry and the inconsistent pattern of acoustic-dependent brain asymmetry between tonal and nontonal language speakers can be explained by the hypothesis that the acoustic-dependent brain asymmetry is the consequence of a carryover effect from function-dependent brain asymmetry. Potential evolutionary implication of this hypothesis is discussed.

The roles of temporal envelope and temporal fine structure in speech synthesis for cochlear implants for tonal language speakers

Since most cochlear implants (CIs) have been developed for non-tonal languages, their level of hearing improvement is significantly decreased when used by speakers of tonal language, e.g., Thai. Temporal envelope (TE) and temporal fine structure (TFS) are important acoustic cues for languages with lexical tones. Specifically, TE is shown to carry manner and voicing cues for consonants, while TFS correlates with vowel formant transitions. Therefore, TFS and TE are expected to enhance intelligibility of lexical tones for CI patients. We proposed the use of six-channel bandpass filters to extract spectral information. Then, TE is extracted by half-wave rectification and smoothed by lowpass filler at 500 Hz cutoff frequency. TFS is extracted by the Hilbert transform to construct carrier signals. TE from each channel is modulated with its corresponding carrier signal and then combined to generate synthesized speech. Synthesized speech tokens from this study and two others [Fu et al. (1998) and Chen and Zhang (2008)] are evaluated by 16 Thais with normal hearing. The results showed that the intelligibility scores from the proposed algorithm are significantly higher than the other two for initials (by 32.2%) and final consonants (by 16.7%) and significantly higher for tones (by 48.8%) than Fu et al.

Decrease of pitch perception ambiguity in tone language processing

Native tone language speakers were presented with speech materials in their language produced by non-native speakers. The speech materials were selected sound streams according to acoustic characteristics. They were made of monosyllabic words, disyllabic words and polysyllabic short sentences in spoken Mandarin. Participants were required to recognize the speeches in as short time as possible. Results revealed that the essential time to identify the speech is longer for shorter sequences, suggesting that ambiguities reside mostly in the lexical tone level. The ambiguity due to pitch perception decreases when the segmented speech events increase. Although it contributes to word meaning, pitch perception is less important in a polysyllables group of words or sentence processing than in monosyllabic word identification. We will also present some applications of these findings.

Tone Language Speakers and Musicians Share Enhanced Perceptual and Cognitive Abilities for Musical Pitch: Evidence for Bidirectionality between the Domains of Language and Music

Psychophysiological evidence suggests that music and language are intimately coupled such that experience/training in one domain can influence processing required in the other domain. While the influence of music on language processing is now well-documented, evidence of language-to-music effects have yet to be firmly established. Here, using a cross-sectional design, we compared the performance of musicians to that of tone-language (Cantonese) speakers on tasks of auditory pitch acuity, music perception, and general cognitive ability (e.g., fluid intelligence, working memory). While musicians demonstrated superior performance on all auditory measures, comparable perceptual enhancements were observed for Cantonese participants, relative to English-speaking nonmusicians. These results provide evidence that tone-language background is associated with higher auditory perceptual performance for music listening. Musicians and Cantonese speakers also showed superior working memory capacity relative to nonmusician controls, suggesting that in addition to basic perceptual enhancements, tone-language background and music training might also be associated with enhanced general cognitive abilities. Our findings support the notion that tone language speakers and musically trained individuals have higher performance than English-speaking listeners for the perceptual-cognitive processing necessary for basic auditory as well as complex music perception. These results illustrate bidirectional influences between the domains of music and language.

Cochlear Dead Region and Word Recognition of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan

In a tonal language, the identity of a word depends largely on the tonal identification of the contour of vocal fundamental frequency energy of which usually centers in a low frequency of less than 600 Hz. However, cochlear dead region (DR) is present mostly in the frequency range of 2000 Hz to 4000 Hz, and the effect of DR on a tonal language is worth investigating. Thirty-two native Mandarin speakers with moderate-to-severe degree of sensorineural hearing loss were included in this study. The pure-tone audiometry, speech recognition threshold (SRT) and word recognition score (WRS) were used to evaluate the degree of hearing loss and word recognition. The threshold equalizing noise (TEN) tests were used to identify the presence of DR. The results showed that most DRs were present in high frequencies. The hearing thresholds of the ears with a DR were not significantly different from those without DR. However, the WRS was significantly worse for the DR ears, especially for those whose DR included three or more audiometric frequencies. A DR caused a significantly worse word recognition for the tonal language speakers of Mandarin in Taiwan, although the DR frequency occurred in the high frequency of 2000 Hz to 4000 Hz.

The separation between music and speech: Evidence from the perception of Cantonese tones

This study investigates the relationship between music and speech, testing whether musical training has any facilitatory effects on native tone language speakers. Some Cantonese tone pairs are merging in recent years. The merging subjects have poorer general lexical tone perception than the control subjects. Previous studies showed that musical training facilitates lexical tone perception of nontone language speakers, but it is unclear if the same is true for tone language speakers. Three groups of listeners (standard Cantonese, merging Cantonese, nontone) with and without musical training participated in AX discrimination tasks of Cantonese monosyllables and pure tones resynthesized from Cantonese lexical tones. Results show that while musical training enhances lexical tone perception of nontone listeners, it has little influence on Cantonese listeners. The findings suggest that the linguistic use of tones is more fundamental and more robust than musical tones. Our results are compatible with the idea that linguistic and musical mechanisms belong to separate but overlapping domains.

Absolute pitch is associated with a large auditory digit span: A clue to its genesis

Absolute pitch (AP) is very rare in North America and Europe, and its genesis is unclear. Its prevalence is far higher among tone language speakers, and among those with early onset of musical training. However, most nontone language speakers with early and extensive musical training do not possess AP. To test the hypothesis that an unusually large auditory memory is involved in the genesis of AP, at least in nontone language speakers, we recruited 7 AP possessors, and 20 AP nonpossessors. All subjects were primary speakers of English, had begun musical training at ≤ age 6, and were UCSD students or recent graduates. The two groups were matched for age and years of musical experience. All subjects were administered an auditory digit span test, followed by a visual digit span test, with digits presented 1/sec. While the average auditory digit span was 8.1 digits for the AP nonpossessors, it was 10.0 digits for the AP possessors. This difference between the two groups was highly significant (p = 0.0015, 1-tailed). The AP possessors also marginally outperformed the nonpossessors on the visual digit span test; however this difference was nonsignificant. These new findings provide a clue to a genetic component of AP.

Second language acquisition of Mandarin Chinese tones by tonal and non-tonal language speakers

This study examines whether second language (L2) learners from tonal and non-tonal first language (L1) backgrounds differ in their perception and production of L2 tones. Ten English-speaking and nine Cantonese-speaking learners participated in Experiment 1, which consisted of the following three tasks: identifying auditory tonal stimuli using Mandarin tonal labels (Identification), mimicking tonal stimuli (Mimicry), and producing tones based upon Mandarin tonal labels (Reading). The results of Experiment 1 showed that the Cantonese group did not perform significantly better than the English group in perceiving and producing Mandarin tones. Both groups had significant difficulty in distinguishing Mandarin Tone 2 (T2) and Tone 3 (T3), and the Cantonese group also had additional trouble distinguishing Mandarin Tone 1 (T1) and Tone 4 (T4). Overall, across the different tasks of Experiment 1 learners had similar accuracy rates and error patterns, indicating comparable tone perception and production abilities. However, learners were significantly better at mimicking tones than at identifying or reading them, suggesting that the major difficulty learners faced in acquiring Mandarin tones was associating pitch contours with discrete tonal labels. This difficulty, however, may be specific to tone acquisition. Seven of the nine Cantonese participants took part in Experiment 2, which assessed their perceptual assimilation of Mandarin tones to Cantonese tones. The results of Experiment 2 helped explain Cantonese learners' T1–T4 confusion by showing that these two tones were mapped onto overlapping Cantonese tonal categories. However, the mapping results would not predict prevailing T2–T3 confusion as observed in Experiment 1, suggesting that this confusion stemmed from factors outside of learners' L1 experience. This study argues that the T2–T3 contrast is hard for L2 learners regardless of their native languages, because of these two tones' acoustic similarity and complex phonological relationship. This suggests that for explaining difficulties in acquisition of certain L2 sounds, factors other than learners' L1 background may also play a significant role.

Lexical tone processing by monolingual and bilingual speakers of tone and non tone languages

This experiment tested early Chinese–English bilinguals (age of arrival in Canada < 2 years) for lexical encoding processes of F0 contour (tone). Earlier experimentation (e.g., Mattock and Burnham, 2006) has indicated that processing of lexical tone differs between the two corresponding monolingual groups, demonstrating that English monolingual infants begin to disregard F0 contour differences in non word minimal pairs by the age of nine months, while Chinese monolingual infants do not exhibit this behavior. In the present study, three groups of participants were tested using a short-term memory encoding task (Dupoux et al., 2010) with non word minimal pairs differentiated only by F0 contour. Although the tone contours utilized in the experiment were non-native to all speakers, Chinese-dominant bilinguals (adult arrival in Canada) performed significantly better than English monolinguals in recalling long non word sequences differentiated only by these contours, while their performance in simple phoneme-differentiated sequences (e.g., [mu, fu]) was equal to that of the English speakers. However, the target group of early Chinese–English bilinguals produced scores corresponding to a bimodal distribution, with some speakers correlating to English monolinguals' performance and others corresponding to Chinese-dominant speakers' scores. Correspondence to one mode or another was analyzed using a series of sociolinguistic factors.