This study investigated the perception of Cantonese and Mandarin tones by both tonal and non-tonal language speakers. Eighty subjects were recruited from four language groups (native Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Cantonese listeners who are Mandarin naïve). There were two parts in this study: the first experiment focused on Cantonese tones, while the second experiment focused on Mandarin tones. Participants were asked to discriminate if there were any tone differences between two target words in carrier phrase. Results showed that linguistic background may not necessarily influence the perception of non-native tones, and if influence was present, it could be positive or negative. Erroneous tone patterns from different native language groups were compared in regard to their native language’s tone inventory and also in terms of psychoacoustic features. Other factors that may influence cross-language tone perceptions were also discussed.
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