Abstract
This study investigates an unreported ongoing sound
change in Hong Kong Cantonese. Cantonese is
arguably the only variety of Chinese that contains
long-short contrast in its vowel system, which is
essentially a contrast in vowel quality. However,
results from a production experiment with 60 genderbalanced
native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers of
three age groups suggests that this contrast is
disappearing. Extracted from a read passage, the
bark-normalized formant values of the three pairs of
vowels with length contrast ([a]-[ɐ], [ɛ]-[e], and [ɔ]-
[o]) were compared across the three age groups and
gender using linear mixed modelling. While the
length contrast is largely retained across age groups,
the acoustic difference is diminishing, especially
among the young group. This merger-in-progress is
actualized by increasing proximity in vowel height.
All the vowel pairs seem to adopt the unidirectional
merger-by-transfer, but they are realized differently:
for [a]-[ɐ] pair, the long vowel transfers to the short
one, but the other way around for the other two pairs.
change in Hong Kong Cantonese. Cantonese is
arguably the only variety of Chinese that contains
long-short contrast in its vowel system, which is
essentially a contrast in vowel quality. However,
results from a production experiment with 60 genderbalanced
native Hong Kong Cantonese speakers of
three age groups suggests that this contrast is
disappearing. Extracted from a read passage, the
bark-normalized formant values of the three pairs of
vowels with length contrast ([a]-[ɐ], [ɛ]-[e], and [ɔ]-
[o]) were compared across the three age groups and
gender using linear mixed modelling. While the
length contrast is largely retained across age groups,
the acoustic difference is diminishing, especially
among the young group. This merger-in-progress is
actualized by increasing proximity in vowel height.
All the vowel pairs seem to adopt the unidirectional
merger-by-transfer, but they are realized differently:
for [a]-[ɐ] pair, the long vowel transfers to the short
one, but the other way around for the other two pairs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Australia 2019 |
| Editors | Sasha Calhoun, Paola Escudero, Marija Tabain , Paul Warren |
| Place of Publication | Canberra, Australis |
| Pages | 3225-3229 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | ISBN 978-0-646-80069-1 |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2019 |
Keywords
- Hong Kong Cantonese
- Diachronic sound change
- vocalic long-short contrast
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities