Tones shape notes: The realization of lexical tones in Chaozhou songs

In tone languages where pitch is used to distinguish word meanings, questions arise about how tonal pitch is preserved in singing. While most studies focus on tone-melody matching by examining pitch changes between tones/notes, the pitch change of tones realized within individual notes is less investigated. This article explores how singers realized tones when singing in Chaozhou, a Southern Chinese language with a complex tonal system. It used a Chaozhou song containing 10 tonal patterns to collect data from 34 Chaozhou singers. Results show that tones are realized to varying degrees when sung, and pitch range, pitch level, and neighboring pitch of tones appear to be influential factors. Vocal training affected the realization of falling tones /53/ and /42/ by reducing the pitch fall and also affected rising tone /23/ with a larger pitch change being found for non-professional singers than for professionals. However, the singers’ experience of singing in Chaozhou did not greatly affect the tone realization. An effect of the metrical structure was only found for tones /53/ and /42/. In addition, tone sandhi affects tones /53/ and /21/. The analysis also hints at the potential effect of melodic intervals on the pitch change of tones when sung.