An electroglottographic study of phonation types in tones of Suzhou Wu Chinese

Abstract

Tonal systems often involve cues other than F0, such as phonation types. This paper investigated the phonation distinction of tones in Suzhou Wu Chinese. Simultaneous electroglottographic (EGG) and audio data of isolated syllables collected from eight speakers aged above 65 were analyzed. Closed quotient (CQ) and peak increase contact (PIC) were measured on the EGG signals. Generalized Additive Mixed Models (GAMM) were conducted to analyze the time course of CQ and PIC, with tone and speaker’s gender as smoothing terms. CQ and PIC were lower for low register than high register tones, with smaller differences in female than male speakers. The time courses of CQ and PIC were also varied with genders. The correlations between EGG and acoustic measurements were also calculated. H1*-H2* and H1*-A1* were more strongly correlated with CQ, whereas the correlations between them and PIC were weak. This paper showed that low register tones in Suzhou Wu were pronounced with breathy voice, which was more prominent at the onset of vowel, while the degree of breathiness and its time course dif-fered between females and males. The EGG measurements and their correlations with acoustic measurements provide evidence to explicate the evolution of tones in Suzhou Wu.