Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of speech rate on pre-low raising in Cantonese. Pre-low raising is an anticipatory tonal process where a high tone is raised when followed by a low tone (i.e. the trigger). Six native speakers of Cantonese were recorded saying a disyllable in 36 tone combinations (6 tones×6 tones) at two speech rates (normal and slow). It was found that in slow speech pre-low raising only occurred when the trigger was extremely low in pitch, whereas at normal speech rate it was observed in more tonal contexts. It is argued that pre-low raising is a result of enhanced cricothyroid activity in preparation for an upcoming low pitch target. Copyright © 2016 International Speech Communication Association (ISCA).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the Tonal Aspects of Languages 2016 |
| Editors | C. DICANIO, J. MALINS, J. GOOD, K. MICHELSON, J. JAEGER, H. KEILY |
| Place of Publication | Buffalo, New York |
| Publisher | International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) |
| Pages | 75-79 |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Citation
Lee, A., & Xu, Y. (2016). Effect of speech rate on pre-low raising in Cantonese. In C. DiCanio, et al. (eds.), Proceedings of the Tonal Aspects of Languages 2016 (pp. 75-79). Buffalo, New York: International Speech Communication Association (ISCA).Keywords
- Tone
- Production
- Cantonese