Tonal effects on voice onset time: Stops in Mandarin and Hakka (聲調對嗓音起始時間的影響：以國語和客語為研究對象)

聲調對嗓音起始時間的影響：以國語和客語為研究對象 Tonal effects on voice onset time: Stops in Mandarin and Hakka 彭瑞鳳 Jui-Feng Peng 陳麗美 Li-mei Chen 林依雲 Yi-Yun Lin 國立成功大學外國語文學系（所） Department of Foreign Languages & Literature National Cheng Kung University leemay@mail.ncku.edu.tw Abstract This study examines the influence of lexical tone upon voice onset time (VOT) in Mandarin and Hakka. Examination of VOT values for Mandarin and Hakka word-initial stops /p, t, k, ph, th, kh/ followed by three vowels /i, u, a/ in different lexical tones revealed that lexical tone has a significant influence on the VOTs. The result is important because it suggests that future studies should take its influence into account when studying VOT values for stops in tonal languages. In Mandarin, stops’ VOTs, ordering from the longest to the shortest, are in Tone 2, Tone 3, Tone 1, and Tone 4: this sequence is the same as Liu, Ng, Wan, Wang, and Zhang’s (2008) [1] results. However, later it was found that the sequence results from the existence of non-words. Because in order to produce non-words correctly, participants tended to pronounce them at a lower speed, especially those in Tone 2. Therefore, we further examined the data without non-words, in which no clear sequence had been found. For Hakka, Post hoc tests (Scheffe) show that aspirated stops in Tones 4 and 8 have significantly shorter VOT values than they have in other tones. Keywords: Voice onset time, Mandarin tones, Hakka stops, Mandarin stops 1. Introduction The aim of this paper is to explore whether lexical tones influence the VOT values for word-initial stops. This issue is important because VOT is considered as a reliable phonetic feature to differentiate consonant stops ([2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]) and recently it has been used to study the language production of patients with language deficits or disorders ([8], [9]). Among the languages being investigated, some are tone languages, i.e. Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese. In a tonal language, the duration of each lexical tone is slightly different. Consequently, it is possible that lexical tone will affect stop’s voice onset time. However, few studies have taken this factor into consideration while studying tone languages. It is hoped that with data from Mandarin and Hakka, we can establish the groundwork for future studies related to VOTs in tonal languages. If lexical tone does have an influence on the VOT, it should be taken into account when creating stimulus words in future studies for tonal languages, thereby rendering studies more valid and reliable. 1.1 Voice onset time Lisker and Abramson (1964) [2] have defined voice onset time (VOT) as the 115 temporal interval from the release of an initial stop to the onset of glottal pulsing for a following vowel. It has been considered as a reliable phonetic cue to categorizing the stop consonants, i.e. voiced vs. voiceless or unaspirated vs. aspirated, in various languages ([2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [10]). Additionally, by comparing VOT values for stops produced by native and non-native speakers for specific languages, researchers have provided some …

Content truncated to 500 words