Acoustic Exploration of Whether Alveolar Onsets [ts], [tsh], [s] Are Palatalized in
Dongshi Hakka
Author:
Ming-Chung Cheng (Institute of Hakka Language and Communication, National United University), Yueh-Chen Chang (Miaoli County Wenlin Junior High School)
Vol.&No.：Vol. 60, No. 1
Date：March 2015
Pages：1-29
DOI：10.6210/JNTNULL.2015.60(1).01
Abstract：
This study examined whether [ts], [tsh], and [s] in Dongshi Hakka are palatalized into [tɕ], [tɕh], [ɕ] acoustically and sociolinguistically. A total of 60 native Dongshi Hakka speakers participated in this study. They were evenly distributed into six groups according to gender and age (old, middleaged, and young). The participants were asked to read a word list and a reading passage to collect speech tokens of [s] and [ɕ] in consideration of variables, such as following vowel context, gender, age, and speech style. PRAAT was manually used to measure frication duration and spectral peak frequencies of the fricatives [s] and [ɕ] in Dongshi Hakka and Mandarin. The results show that, regardless of which variables were considered, [s] was significantly shorter in frication duration and higher in spectral peak frequency than [ɕ]. Remarkably, the high-front vowel [i] lengthened the frication duration and lowered the spectral peak frequencies of [s]; however, significant difference still existed between [s] and [ɕ]. Finally, regarding stability, this study revealed the distinct roles of frication duration and spectral peak frequency in the distinction of consonants in Hakka as well as the reason that [ts], [tsh], and [s] cannot be palatalized into [tɕ], [tɕh], and [ɕ] in Dongshi Hakka in terms of the dimensions of speech production, phonetic context, and speech perception.
Keywords：alveolar onset, Dongshi, Hakka, acoustics, palatalization
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