Journal of Chinese Linguistics最新文献

The acoustic characteristics of the tense and lax contrasts have been studied extensively, and different measures were attested to be related, but few of these studies discussed different measures together and explored their relationships. Three of the eight tones in Zhoucheng Bai (i.e., T2, T6, and T7) are marked as tense tones, while the rest are lax tones. Based on Electroglottographic (EGG) and acoustic signals, this paper examined eight measures, namely fundamental frequency (F0), open quotient (OQ), speed quotient (SQ), H1*-H2*, H2*-H4*, H1*-A1*, H1*-A2*, and H1*- A3*, in the data obtained from 10 Zhoucheng Bai speakers. It shows that different measures perform variously in the distinction of tense and lax contrasts. F0 well distinguishes between T6 and T1, and both EGG measures and spectral measures can differentiate between T2 and T8, but none of measures reflects the contrast of T7 and T3 for all speakers. The case of T7 and T3 suggests that the relationship between production and perception is not as straightforward as commonly assumed and needs further research. Although different measures don’t always participate in the distinction of tense and lax contrasts together and have equal contributions, they are significantly correlated with each other, which are supported by the correlation analysis.

This study calculated the functional load of Chinese tones in different contexts by using an extensive corpus and the Markov model-based “Hockett-Wang algorithm”. The results show that, compared to vowels and consonants, tones carry the smallest functional load. In tones that are associated with monosyllabic, bi-syllabic, and multi-syllabic words, the functional load is inversely related to the number of syllables in that word. In other words, the more syllables in a word, the further the functional load of tones tends to decrease. Importantly, this study reveals a close correlation between the functional load of Chinese tones and the evolution of these tones. This is evidenced by the perceived imbalance of the functional load of different tonal contrasts within contemporary Chinese, as well as by the simulation results of the drastically declining functional load of Chinese tones in diachronic. These results may suggest that the declining load of Chinese tones is indeed the underlying driver for the merger and the resulting decline in the number of Chinese tones. The conclusions of the paper may shed new light for future research in the fields of phonology, speech engineering, as well as second language teaching.

This study investigates acoustic correlates of prominence in Lizu (Tibeto-Burman). Lizu has been argued to have a hybrid prosodic system combining lexical tone on monosyllabic words and prominence patterns with stress-like and tonal characteristics on polysyllabic words, although empirical evidence is lacking. This study presents an acoustic investigation of the pitch patterns on disyllabic words in the Kala variety of Lizu (HL, HH, LH). Using the parameters of duration, intensity, and f0, it attempts to sort out different forms of prominence, and to explore their interaction with lexical tone. The measurements are taken from experimental data with eight Lizu speakers (4 male and 4 female). The acoustic results and statistical analyses suggest that the first syllable in Kala Lizu is the position of prominence in all three pitch patterns. Our results are consistent with interpreting the pitch pattern HL as more stress-like (with intensity as an acoustic correlate of stress) and the pitch patterns HH and LH as more tone-like (with stress cued by full realization of lexical tone). This study contributes to a better understanding of the prosodic organization of Kala Lizu and it also suggests methodology for further exploration of other Lizu varieties.

Eight reconstruction systems for Old Chinese and Middle Chinese raised by Bernhard Karlgren, Wang Li, Li Fang-Kuei, Tung T’ungho, Chou Fa-kao, Zhengzhang Shangfang, Pan Wuyun and Baxter-Sagart are revisited in this paper. Taking 60 doculects of balanced Modern Chinese dialects as reference, similarities between Old Chinese, Middle Chinese and modern Chinese dialects are calculated with ASJP tools. Evolution rates for Old Chinese to Middle Chinese, Middle Chinese to Modern Chinese and the rates ratios are analysed. The results show that Zhengzhang Shangfang’s and Baxter-Sagart’s reconstructions are most reasonable and self-consistent ones among the eight systems. The author argues that, from an external perspective of diachronic change of language, analysis on similarity data and change rates may contribute to reconstruction evaluation.

The article uses the nasometer to analyze systematically the monophthongs, diphthongs, nasalized vowels, non-nasal voiced consonants, and nasal consonants of Shuangfeng dialect. Through the investigation of nasality, we find that it is a dialect with high value of nasality, and its nasality is gradually weakening. The nasality of vowels is related to the position of the tongue. The degree of nasality to the voiced consonant is related to the pronunciation position and the pronunciation method. Phonetically, the type of /l/ of Shuangfeng dialect has important significance and has age differences. From the perspective of the nasality, the types of /l/ of the elderly, middle-aged, and young speakers are respectively nasal /l/, nasalized /l/, and accented /l/. The nasality decreases with reduction of speakers’ age.