Acoustic evidence for protracted development of monosyllabic Mandarin tone production by Taiwanese children

Abstract

The current study examines the acoustic characteristics of monosyllabic Mandarin tones produced by 3-y-old children growing up in Taiwan. Four hundred monosyllabic tone productions were collected from 11 adults and 10 children and were judged by 5 Mandarin-speaking adults to determine tone accuracy. Seven acoustic parameters strongly associated with Mandarin tone perception were measured in these productions and compared among children's and adults correct and incorrect productions. The findings indicate that children do not produce the high level tone with fundamental frequencies (f0) as high or level as adults. Children's rising, falling, and dipping tones do not reach f0 ranges as low as adults. These results are largely consistent with the findings in our previous acoustic study on the monosyllabic Mandarin tones produced by 3-y-old children growing up in the U.S. Taken together, 3-y-old Mandarin-speaking children growing up in the U.S. and Taiwan do not produce adult-like monosyllabic Mandarin tones. Even children's productions in which the tonal targets are correctly perceived by adults are acoustically different than the adult forms. Children demonstrate more difficulties producing low f0 targets. The findings provide acoustic evidence to support a much more protracted process for Mandarin lexical tone acquisition than most studies have suggested.