Vietnamese (Vietic, Mon-Khmer, Austroasiatic) is monosyllabic and tonal. Most Mon-Khmer (MK) languages are multisyllabic and atonal. Evidence suggests that Vietnamese (VN) has had its tones less than one millennium, and that other languages (both MK and non-MK) are also acquiring tones, a process called "tonogenesis". Comparing VN's…

Recent psycholinguistic findings showed that (a) a multi-modal phonetic training paradigm that encodes visual, interactive information is more effective in training L2 learners' perception of novel categories, (b) decreasing the acoustic variance of a phonetic dimension allows the learners to more effectively shift the perceptual weight towards…

Prosody refers to features of speech such as intonation, volume and pace. In this paper, we examine teacher-student dialogue in an English lesson at a secondary school in England, using Conversation Analysis notation to mark features of prosody. We also make connections with Goffman's theoretical concept of footing. We show that, within an episode…

Historically, the brainstem has been neglected as a part of the brain involved in language processing. We review recent evidence of language-dependent effects in pitch processing based on comparisons of native vs. nonnative speakers of a tonal language from electrophysiological recordings in the auditory brainstem. We argue that there is enhancing…

This study investigated the effects of first language prosodic transfer on the perception and production of English lexical stress and the relation between stress perception and production by second language learners. To test the effect of Thai tonal distribution rules and stress patterns on native Thai speakers' perception and production of…

The current study lays the groundwork for a model of Mandarin tones based on both native speakers' and non-native speakers' perception and production. It demonstrates that there is variability in non-native speakers' tone productions and that there are differences in the perceptual boundaries in native speakers and non-native speakers. There…

This study examined the perception of the four Mandarin lexical tones by Mandarin-naive Hong Kong Cantonese, Japanese, and Canadian English listener groups. Their performance on an identification task, following a brief familiarization task, was analyzed in terms of tonal sensitivities (A-prime scores on correct identifications) and tonal errors…

This paper investigates the relationship between the phonological features of tone and tone perception in Thai. Specifically, it tests the hypothesis (proposed by Moren & Zsiga, 2006) that the principle perceptual cues to the five-way tonal contrast in Thai are high and low pitch targets aligned to moras. Results of four perception studies, one…

Using Mandarin Chinese, a "tone language" in which the pitch contours of syllables differentiate words, the authors examined the acoustic modifications of infant-directed speech (IDS) at the syllable level to test 2 hypotheses: (a) the overall increase in pitch and intonation contour that occurs in IDS at the phrase level would not distort…

Two studies explored the nature of phonological awareness (PA) in Chinese. In Study 1, involving 146 children, awareness of phoneme onset did not differ from chance levels at ages 3-5 years in preschool but increased to 70% correct in first grade, when children first received phonological coding (Pinyin) instruction. Similarly, tone awareness was…

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intensive voice therapy on Cantonese speakers with Parkinson's disease. The effect of the treatment on lexical tone was of particular interest. Four Cantonese speakers with idiopathic Parkinson's disease received treatment based on the principles of Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT).…

THE SCOPE OF THIS DISCUSSION IS LIMITED TO THE BASIC PATTERNS OF TONE AND INTONATION IN JAPANESE, (THE FIRST HAVING PRIORITY OVER THE SECOND). THE AUTHOR DISAGREES WITH PIKE ("TONE LANGUAGE"), WHO TENTATIVELY LIMITS SIGNIFICANT PITCH CONTRASTS TO STRESSED SYLLABLES OR TO LONG VOWELS. HE AGREES WITH PIKE, HOWEVER, IN SAYING THAT JAPANESE…

The speech of two male Taiwanese speakers was analyzed to determine whether fundamental frequency (Fo) is correlated with both duration and intensity; five conclusions are drawn. The results are discussed in terms of theories of pitch production and speed of pitch change. (EJS)

THIS SKETCH CONSTITUTES A PRELIMINARY STUDY FOR A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OF PANJABI, THE LANGUAGE SPOKEN BY NEARLY 30 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE INDIAN AND PAKISTANI PROVINCES OF PUNJAB, AND BY SIKHS AND PANJABI MUSLIMS IN EAST AFRICA. AN INDO-ARYAN LANGUAGE, PANJABI (ALONG WITH HINDI) IS THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGE OF EAST PUNJAB, AND THE PRESENT STUDY IS…

CHINESE SPEAKERS IN THE UNITED STATES USUALLY SPEAK CHINESE WITH ENGLISH WORDS INSERTED. IN MANDARIN CHINESE, A TONE-SANDHI RULE CHANGES A THIRD TONE PRECEDING ANOTHER THIRD TONE TO A SECOND TONE. THE THIRD TONE IS LOW--THE THREE OTHER TONES ARE HIGH. IT IS THE (-HIGH) FEATURE THAT PROVOKES CHINESE TONE SANDHI. USING THE TONE-SANDHI RULE, THE…