A Study of F1 Correlation with F0 in a Tone Language: Case of Thai

Author(s):  
Sulaganya Punyayodhin ◽  
Deepshikha Misra ◽  
Ritu Yadav ◽  
Vaishna Narang
Keyword(s):  
Probus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-93
Author(s):  
Ana Lívia Agostinho ◽  
Larry M. Hyman

Abstract Creole languages have generally not figured prominently in cross-linguistic studies of word-prosodic typology. In this paper, we present a phonological analysis of the prosodic system of Lung’Ie or Principense (ISO 639-3 code: pre), a Portuguese-lexifier creole language spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe. Lung’Ie has produced a unique result of the contact between the two different prosodic systems common in creolization: a stress-accent lexifier and tone language substrates. The language has a restrictive privative H/Ø tone system, in which the /H/ is culminative, but non-obligatory. Since rising and falling tones are contrastive on long vowels, the tone must be marked underlyingly. While it is clear that tonal indications are needed, Lung’Ie reveals two properties more expected of an accentual system: (i) there can only be one heavy syllable per word; (ii) this syllable must bear a H tone. This raises the question of whether syllables with a culminative H also have metrical prominence, i.e. stress. However, the problem with equating stress with H tone is that Lung’Ie has two kinds of nouns: those with a culminative H and those which are toneless. The nouns with culminative H are 87% of Portuguese origin, incorporated through stress-to-tone alignment, while the toneless ones are 92% of African origin. Although other creole languages have been reported with split systems of “accented” vs. fully specified tonal lexemes, and others with mixed systems of tone and stress, Lung’Ie differs from these cases in treating African origin words as toneless, a quite surprising result. We consider different analyses and conclude that Lung’Ie has a privative /H/ tone system with the single unusual stress-like property of weight-to-tone.


Probus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Lívia Agostinho ◽  
Larry M. Hyman

Abstract Creole languages have generally not figured prominently in cross-linguistic studies of word-prosodic typology. In this paper, we present a phonological analysis of the prosodic system of Lung’Ie or Principense (ISO 639-3 code: pre), a Portuguese-based creole language spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe. Lung’Ie has produced a unique result of the contact between the two different prosodic systems common in creolization: a stress-accent lexifier and tone language substrates. The language has a restrictive privative H/Ø tone system, in which the /H/ is culminative, but non-obligatory. Since rising and falling tones are contrastive on long vowels, the tone must be marked underlyingly. While it is clear that tonal indications are needed, Lung’Ie reveals two properties more expected of an accentual system: (i) there can only be one heavy syllable per word; (ii) this syllable must bear a H tone. This raises the question of whether syllables with a culminative H also have metrical prominence, i.e. stress. However, the problem with equating stress with H tone is that Lung’Ie has two kinds of nouns: those with a culminative H and those which are toneless. The nouns with culminative H are 87% of Portuguese origin, incorporated through stress-to-tone alignment, while the toneless ones are 92% of African origin. Although other creole languages have been reported with split systems of “accented” vs. fully specified tonal lexemes, and others with mixed systems of tone and stress, Lung’Ie differs from these cases in treating African origin words as toneless, a quite surprising result. We consider different analyses and conclude that Lung’Ie has a privative /H/ tone system with the single unusual stress-like property of weight-to-tone.


1978 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackson T. Gandour ◽  
Richard A. Harshman

Using an individual differences multidimensional scaling model of perception, this crosslanguage investigation seeks to determine what dimensions underlie the perception of linguistic tone, and to what extent an individual's language background (Thai, Yoruba or American English) influences his perception. Dissimilarities data were obtained from subjects' paired-comparison judgments of 13 different pitch patterns superimposed on a synthetic speech-like syllable. A multidimensional scaling analysis of the data for the total group revealed that five dimensions - interpretively labeled, AVERAGE PITCH, DIRECTION, LENGTH, EXTREME ENDPOINT and SLOPE - best summarize the perceptual structure underlying the dissimilarities data. Language subgroup variation in relative importance of these dimensions appears to be primarily related to subgroup differences in the way pitch is used to convey linguistic information. Discriminant analysis showed that most individual speakers of a tone language (Thai or Yoruba) can be easily distinguished from speakers of a nontone language (English) on the basis of their distinctive patterns of perceptual saliency for these five dimensions. Regression analysis indicated that the DIRECTION and SLOPE dimensions closely correspond to certain earlier proposed binary distinctive features of tone.


2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-121
Author(s):  
Anh-Thư T Nguyễn

This article reports a study that aimed to find out whether F0 patterns of L2 English produced by Vietnamese speakers are different to those of native English speakers, whether the non-native F0 patterns are transferred from Vietnamese, and to what extent English and Vietnamese F0 profiles differ. Ten native/L1 Australian English speakers, 20 Vietnamese speakers of English (10 beginners and 10 advanced speakers) and a control group of four native/L1 Vietnamese speakers were included. The F0 profiles (F0 maximum, F0 minimum, F0 range, F0 mean and F0 standard deviation at three levels: utterance, syllable and phoneme) were obtained from a set of 10 English sentences and 20 Vietnamese utterances. The results showed that F0 patterns of beginning-level L2 English are systematically different from those of native English speakers, which can be transferred from their native tone language. Nevertheless, the advanced speakers’ ability to produce native-like F0 patterns indicates the effect of language learning experience on prosodic acquisition. The data and results of this study contribute to the understanding of the process and nature of second language acquisition.


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