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Dialectal Variation of Voice Quality in Taiwan Min: an Egg and Acoustical Study

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Dialectal Variation of Voice Quality in Taiwan Min: an Egg and Acoustical Study ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 DIALECTAL VARIATION OF VOICE QUALITY IN TAIWAN MIN: AN EGG AND ACOUSTICAL STUDY Ho-hsien Pan, Mao-hsu Chen, Shao-ren Lyu & Yu-chu Ke Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] ABSTRACT White Hmong [16]. Languages make use of different acoustical parameters to distinguish This study explored the voice quality of Taiwan phonation types. For example, Mazatec phonations Min checked tones 5 and 3 produced by speakers can also be distinguished with H1*-H2* and of varying ages from northern, central and Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP) as well [11]. In southern Taiwan with Zhanzhou, Quanzhou and addition to acoustic and EGG parameters, the time mixed accents. Comparison between spectral tilt course in which the phonation contrast continues (difference between H1*-H2* amplitudes) and within the vowel also varied across languages. In closed quotients of the glottal wave form showed Yi, the phonation contrast continues through the that checked tones with creaky / tense voice entire vowel. In Gujarati, the phonation contrast is quality were distinguished from unchecked tones present in the middle of the vowel, and in Mazatec produced by middle aged speakers from central the phonation contrast exists only in the beginning and southern Taiwan but not by young speakers. of the vowel [16]. Keywords: Taiwan Min, sociophonetics, checked This study followed this line of study on tones, sound change, voice quality, EGG languages with both phonation and lexical tonal contrasts and investigated the voice quality of two 1. INTRODUCTION checked tones, 5 and 3, of Taiwan Min. CVC In many Sino-Tibetan languages, such as Green syllables with final unreleased voiceless stops, Mong, Khmar, Kuai, Jingho, Hani, Yi, and Wa, “checked” tone syllables, are shorter in duration lexical tones are distinguished by both voice than open syllables, or syllables with nasal codas [7]. quality and tonal contour [1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 15, 17, A previous fiber optical study on Taiwan Min 18]. For example, Yi has a tense and lax voice checked tones 5 and 3 found glottalization quality contrast as well as f0 tonal contrasts. White accompanying oral closure during articulation of Hmong, a Hmong-Mien language, has modal, final stops [14]. An inverse filtered oral airflow breathy, and creak phonation contrasts as well as study found low airflow and a long closed phase in tonal contrasts. Phonation and tonal contrasts exist the glottal waveform of checked tones produced by in Jalapa languages as well. For example, Mazatec some speakers [19]. As the vocal folds closed off has modal, breathy, and creaky phonation contrasts during checked syllables, the airflow decreased and tonal contrasts. Also, Indo-European and the closed phase of glottal wave forms languages, such as Gujarati have phonation increased. Acoustical studies using spectral tilt, contrasts but do not have a tonal contrast. amplitude of first harmonic minus amplitude of the Esposito [10] by means of Multidimensional highest peak of second formant (H1-A2), did not Scaling Analysis (MDS) found that listeners’ find creaky voice quality for checked tones [20]. It linguistic backgrounds affected the perceptual cues was proposed that H1-A2 may not be an effective they used to distinguish phonation contrasts. A parameter in documenting voice quality of Taiwan cross language Electroglottography (EGG) and Min checked tones. Laryngoscopic study found acoustical study on phonation of Yi, Gujarati, that all speakers showed glottal fold adduction. white Hmong, and Mazatec found that spectral tilt, Younger speakers showed less or no adduction of H1*-H2*, was effective in distinguishing the ventricular fold or aryepiglottic folds [8]. In sum, phonation types in all four languages [16], whereas fiber optical, laryngoscopic and inverse filtered EGG data, such as the mean close quotient oral airflow studies all found glottalization for (CQ_H), distinguished modal from breathy Taiwan Min checked tones, however, the effective phonation in Gujarati, tense from lax phonation in acoustical parameters for documenting Taiwan Yi, and breathy, creaky, and modal phonation in Min checked tones are yet to be determined. 1554 ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 Recent field work studies based on auditory placed within 15 cm in front of all speakers’ impressionistic data observed ongoing sound mouths. The EGG system was not available for change for Taiwan Min checked tone 5. The high remaining subjects. Speakers first read the number onsets of checked tone 5 drop to mid onset as of the order for each token and then paused before checked tone 3 [4, 6]. To explore how tense / reading each target token on the reading list. creaky voice qualities were affected by the sound Speakers took a break and drank water after every change in f0 contours, the voice quality of checked 100 tokens. The recording lasted for about 40 tones produced by young and middle aged minutes. speakers in Northern Zhangzhou, Northern Quanzhou, Central Zhangzhou, Central Quanzhou, 2.5. Data analysis and Southern Mixed dialect regions of Taiwan are The closed quotients of the glottal wave form were documented. calculated with a hybrid method (CQ_H) [9]. Following previous studies [10, 11], H1*-H2* 2. METHOD amplitude was calculated with VoiceSauce [21]. 2.1. Subjects Corrected H1*-H2* values were used, because the vowel quality was not controlled. A negative H1*- Following the isoglosses defined by Ang [5], this H2* value indicate creaky voice quality. The study recruited native speakers from northern and closed quotient, f0, and H1*-H2* values at every central Taiwan with Zhangzhou ( 漳州) and 10% in time during the vowel were extracted and Quanzhou (泉州) accents and southern Taiwan analyzed with one-way ANOVA (checked vs. with a mixed accent. All speakers were able to unchecked tones). speak Mandarin. EGG data were recorded from four of 10 speakers, as shown in Table 1. 3. RESULTS Table 1: Speakers’ backgrounds. 3.1. F0 40-60 years old 20-30 years old As shown in Figure 1, the f0 contours of tones 5, 3, N. Zhangzhou 1Female (1 EGG) 1Male (1 EGG) 53, and 3 fell through out the entire vowels. The f0 N. Quanzhou 2Females (1 EGG) C. Zhangzhou 2Females onset of unchecked tone 53 was the highest, C. Quanzhou 1Male 1Female followed by tone 3, then tone 5, and finally tone 31. S. Mixed 1Female 1Male (1 EGG) Figure 1: F0 contours. 2.2. Instruments Combined-Citation-log(F0) Glottal Enterprise EGG system EG2-PCX and 2.4 TEV TM-728II microphones were used to 53 53 3 3 53 5 5 53 53 simultaneously pick up acoustic and EGG data. 31 53 5 533 5 The EGG and acoustic signals were recorded with 2.2 31 3 5 31 3 31 53 5 Audacity onto a laptop and then separated into 31 53 3 5 31 log(F0) 3 different channels, inverted and analyzed with 31 5331 2.0 5331 EggWorks [9]. The acoustic signals were tagged 5 tone 5 by Praat to mark vowel boundaries, and then 3 tone 3 53 tone 53 analyzed with VoiceSauce [21]. 1.8 31 tone 31 2.3. Corpus 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 A randomized reading list included 390 Data Points (%) monosyllabic tokens that were read in citation 3.2. EGG form included the target checked tones, 5 and 3,controlled unchecked tones, 53 and 31 and filler As shown in Figure 2, there was a significant items with rising and level tones. effect of checked tones vs. unchecked tones on closed quotients produced by middle aged female 2.4. Procedure speaker, CSG, from Northern Quanzhou region During the recording, two electrodes were placed (F(1, 302) = -3.74, p<.01), but not any other on four speaker’s necks while a microphone was speakers. The closed quotient may not be an 1555 ICPhS XVII Regular Session Hong Kong, 17-21 August 2011 effective parameter in documenting voice quality. tones were tenser/ creakier than unchecked tones in Other EGG parameters should be used. central and southern speakers’ data. Figure 2: Close quotients of glottal wave form. Even among and central and southern middle aged speakers, only in KSH’s spectral tilt data was Mean Closed Quotient of Glottal Waveform 60% - 80% into Vowels there a creaky versus modal versus breathy voice 1.2 quality distinction. KSH produced checked tones 1 with negative H1*-H2* values, indicating a creaky voice quality. He produced unchecked tones with 0.8 positive H1*-H2* values, indicating a modal / 0.6 breathy voice quality. 0.4 Closed Quotient H (%) 0.2 3.4. Timecourse 0 Among the central and southern speakers who Figure 3: Spectral tilt NZ-20's-M-CJY NZ-40's-F-PYS NQ-50's-F-CSG SM-20's-M-HHY SM-50's-F-CYZ produced checked tones with a tenser / creakier Tone 5 Tone 3 Tone 53 Tone 31 voice quality, the voice quality contrast between 3.3. Spectral tilt: H1*-H2* corrected checked and unchecked tones was either in the middle or final portion of the vowels. As shown in There were significant effects of tones on spectral Figure 4, the spectral tilt distinction between tilt, H1*-H2*, produced by a young speaker, CJY, checked tones, 5 and 3, and unchecked tones, 53 from Northern Zhangzhou region (F(1, 327)= -3.08, and 31, started after 40% in time into the vowels p< .01), a middle aged female speaker, CSG, from produced by LLS, after 50% in time for KSH and Northern Quanzhou region (F(1, 310)= -4.6, CYZ, and after 60% in time for LJL.
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