Three-sectional-staff characterization of Cantonese level tones

摘要

We have introduced a new approach of acoustical characterization of the level tones of a tone language [I] and tested it with Cantonese [2]. To examine the validity of any perceptual account by analysing its correlation with acoustic data, our new approach requires it to be expressed in terms of the pitch distance ratios between the successive levels instead of representing the pitch levels directly by any system of notation. In this paper, we continued to apply the new approach to search for the existence of a general quantitative relationship governing the pitch distances between each Cantonese level tone. We gathered more recordings and modified the elicitation process of the pitch height of all the four level tones [2] by breaking down the single process for all tones into two sub-processes to avoid the problem of pitch reset.