The study^1 investigates dispersion and variability of the vowels of three Chinese dialects,namely Yongding,Cantonese,and Wenling with the three-,seven-,and eleven-vowel systems,respectively.Measurements of formant fr...The study^1 investigates dispersion and variability of the vowels of three Chinese dialects,namely Yongding,Cantonese,and Wenling with the three-,seven-,and eleven-vowel systems,respectively.Measurements of formant frequencies were obtained through spectral analysis of speech data from ten male and ten female speakers of each dialect Results show that a larger vowel inventory correlates a more expanded acoustical vowel space for the three Chinese dialects,which supports the prediction of the vowel dispersion theory that the larger the vowel inventory is,the more expanded vowel space will be.However,the difference in vowel space is not linearly related to the difference in vowel inventory size.Furthermore,the vowel dispersion theory’s prediction that variability in vowel formant frequencies is inversely related to vowel inventory size is not supported by the vowel formant data from the three Chinese dialects.展开更多
基金supported by a GRF grant(#9041514/CityU#144609)from the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
文摘The study^1 investigates dispersion and variability of the vowels of three Chinese dialects,namely Yongding,Cantonese,and Wenling with the three-,seven-,and eleven-vowel systems,respectively.Measurements of formant frequencies were obtained through spectral analysis of speech data from ten male and ten female speakers of each dialect Results show that a larger vowel inventory correlates a more expanded acoustical vowel space for the three Chinese dialects,which supports the prediction of the vowel dispersion theory that the larger the vowel inventory is,the more expanded vowel space will be.However,the difference in vowel space is not linearly related to the difference in vowel inventory size.Furthermore,the vowel dispersion theory’s prediction that variability in vowel formant frequencies is inversely related to vowel inventory size is not supported by the vowel formant data from the three Chinese dialects.
