2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
An acoustic and socio-linguistic research on the tonal sound changes in the speeches of standard Chinese speakers in Taiwan
| Project/Area Number |
17401012
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 海外学術 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Tohoku University |
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Principal Investigator |
UEHARA Satoshi Tohoku University, Center for the Advancement of Higher Education, Professor (20292352)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2005 – 2007
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| Keywords | Phonetics / Chinese / Taiwan standard Chinese / Socio-linguistics / tones / Taiwanese / contrastive linguistics |
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| Research Abstract |
This international research project aimed to carry out field research and data collection to analyze the sound data with the help of Taiwan universities (e.g. Tsinghua University, Taiwan) and investigate the phonetic and acoustic mechanisms of tones in the Standard Chinese (Mandarin) of Taiwan. Specifically, it aimed to investigate the Taiwan region-specific tonal contour changes observed in the pronunciation of Taiwan Standard Chinese, both by its monolingual speakers and by its bilingual speakers of both Standard Chinese and Taiwanese, and identify their regional specific and universal aspects.
With the above research goals, we carried out an unprecedented amount of data collection and analysis: All the possible syllables types (1,275 types) of modem standard Chinese pronounced by a total of 33 speakers from Taipei were recorded in the form of sound wave files (approximately one hour for one speaker). Then, we segmented each person's sound wave file into 1,275 individual syllable file
… More
s for acoustical analysis of each syllable individually, and we made segmented files of all the 33 speakers'' (11 monolinguals and 22 bilinguals) before March, 2008, the end of this research period. From the results of this acoustic analysis so far, we note here the following findings concerning the syllable tone contours of Standard Chinese speakers from Taipei as most remarkable and important:
1) Syllables of Tone 2 contour (rising>dipping) as well as Tone 3 contour (dipping>falling) pronounced by Taiwan Mandarin speakers are found to be undergoing change.
2) Such changes are led by monolinguals (whose pronunciations are stable) rather than bilinguals, who are more conservative.
3) Males appear to be more innovative than females but less stable.
The above findings are significant in that they constitute counterevidence to the widely accepted assumption that Taiwan Standard Mandarin, due to its short history and conscious effort to promote the Beijing tonal standard, has tonal contours that are just like Beijing Mandarin. They even demonstrate, as evidenced by the pronunciation of younger speakers, that the tonal contour system has very likely changed and that Taiwan Mandarin possesses a tonal contour system of its own. Less
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Research Products
(10 results)
