Tone Hyperarticulation in Cantonese Infant-Directed Speech

摘要

There is extensive evidence for vowel hyperarticulation in infant-directed speech (IDS) [1, 2, 3], but little is known about lexical tones in tonal IDS. Here, longitudinal recordings of Cantonese IDS revealed that tones, like vowels, are hyperarticulated. Implications of this finding for infant linguistic development are discussed.