Tonal coarticulation in Northern and Southern Vietnamese

1. Marc Brunelle University of Ottawa marc.brunelle@uottawa.ca Institute of Phonetics, Cologne, June 7 2010 Tonal coarticulation in Northern and Southern Vietnamese

2. The Northern Vietnamese (NVN) tone system

3. The Southern Vietnamese (SVN) tone system Back to discussion

4. Tonal coarticulation • The physical realization of a tone varies depending on its environment • Neighboring tones • Intonation • Vowels and consonants • Example: In Vietnamese, a mid-level tone starts higher after a rising tone than after a falling tone

5. Progressive coarticulation in tone huyền Female SVN Subject

6. Language-specific hypotheses • Coarticulation should be bidirectional as in other tone languages (Han and Kim 1974, Shen 1990, Gandour et al. 1994, Brunelle 2003) • There should be more progressive than regressive coarticulation in NVN (Han and Kim 1974, Brunelle 2003) • Similar results in Thai (Gandour et al. 1994) • Contours should be relatively stable (Han and Kim 1974, Brunelle 2003)

7. Hypotheses based on models of coarticulation • If a phonetic dimension is crowded, it should vary less (evidence from V-V and nasal coarticulation) • Supporting evidence (Manuel and Krakow 1984, Magen 1984, Cohn 1990, Choi 1995, Manuel 1999) • Conflicting evidence (Clumeck 1976, Han 2007) • If this is true of tonal coarticulation as well? • Pitch targets are less important in NVN than in SVN, because voice quality plays a perceptual role role in NVN tones (Vũ 1981, 1982, Brunelle 2006) • Because of the lesser role of voice quality in SVN, contours should be less variable Dialect A Dialect B Tone 1 Tone 1 (modal voice)  F0 Tone 2 Tone 2 (creaky voice)

8. The recordings • 5 NVN speakers (3 women, 2 men) • 6 SVN speakers (3 women, 3 men) • Read the syllable /ma/ with all tones after the vowel /ɨ/ bearing all tones. • Frame sentences are half-realistic as strange first names were coined for the experiment. • Meaningful: Để tôi nói chữ mạ xem ông đó có hiểu không. Let me say the word ‘rice seedling’ to see if that man understands. • Borderline: Để tôi chào sư Ma xem ông ấy có nhớ tôi không. Let me greet monk Ma to see if he remembers me. • 36 (NVN) or 25 (SVN) frame sentences read 10 times each.

9. Results: direction of coarticulation • Impressionistically, there is more progressive than anticipatory coarticulation in all speakers Female SVN speaker Anticipatory, in ngang Progressive, in ngang

10. Results: A tone in which voice quality is crucial • When voice quality is a central phonetic cue, pitch varies more (extreme example) Male NVN speaker Anticipatory, in nặng Progressive, in nặng

11. Quantification of coarticulation • The vowels /ɨ/ and /a/ and the intervening /m/ are measured at 5 equidistant points • General linear model analysis for each dialect (modified from Gandour et al. 1994) • Dependant variable • F0 of 5 measurement points of each tone before all tones (anticipatory coarticulation) • F0 of 5 measurement points of each tone after all tones (progressive coarticulation) • Factors • Speaker • F0 at edge of adjacent vowel • onset of V2 for anticipatory • offset of V1 for progressive

12. Strength of coarticulation (in F values) Anticipatory Progressive NVN SVN

13. Summary of results (language-specific hypotheses) • Stronger coarticulation in NVN than in SVN • Bi-directional coarticulation, assimilatory in both directions • Different from Thai (Gandour et al. 1994) • Stronger progressive than anticipatory coarticulation in both dialects, but: • Much more short-distance progressive than anticipatory coarticulation • Slightly more long-distance anticipatory than progressive coarticulation • Would the effect be stronger in real speech? (wordlist effect)

14. Discussion: the role of voice quality • Voice quality in NVN tones allows more variation in pitch without risk of confusion Hence more coarticulation • The strength of coarticulation seems predictable from patterns of contrast (Manuel and Krakow 1984)

15. Discussion: Anticipatory vs. Progressive ? X • Two types of coarticulation (Perkell and Chiang 1996) • Long-distance anticipatory coarticulation is due to planning on the part of the speaker • Start early but don’t blur tonal contrasts! • Short-distance progressive coarticulation is due to immediate physical constraints • You can’t jump from 100 to 200 Hz in 5 milliseconds! • Other types of phonetic dimensions and other languages favor anticipatory coarticulation.

16. Discussion: Why is there more progressive coarticulation? • Rises and drops in pitch are often delayed (Ohala 1978) • Universal constraints… • A foresighted speaker could plan ahead and anticipate… • Tone onsets are less distinct than tone offsets, so blurring is less costly from a communicative point of view • A language with more variation at tone onsets than tone offsets should exhibit stronger anticipatory coarticulation Tone charts

17. Conclusion • Two types of assimilatory co-articulation in NVN and SVN • Long-distance anticipatory co-articulation • The speaker is anticipating the following tone • Short-distance progressive co-articulation • Physical constraints on pitch production; transitions cannot be too abrupt • The functional load of pitch determines the extent of coarticulation • NVN has pitch and voice quality: more co-articulation • SVN has pitch only: less co-articulation • The direction of coarticulation is determined by the tonal targets

18. Marc Brunelle marc.brunelle@uottawa.ca Hạ Kiều Phương kha@smail.uni-koeln.de Martine Grice martine.grice@uni-koeln.de Intonation in Northern Vietnamese Institute of Phonetics, Cologne June 7, 2010

19. An old question... • Communicative functions • Markers (morphemes, particles, …) • Sentence restructuring • Intonation • How do you realize intonation when lexical tone is already making use of f0? • A bit Eurocentric, yet very relevant typologically

20. Intonation in East Asiantonelanguages • Strategy 1: Boundary tones alternate with lexical tones • All tones in the same tier X X X X X X X X X X %H H L L H H L H L H%

21. Intonation in East Asiantonelanguages • Strategy 2: Superposition of intonation over lexical tone • Upward/Downward shift • Expansion/Compression • Theseeffectscouldbeeither global or local %q-raise X X X X X X X X H L L H H L H L

22. Previouswork on intonation in East Asiantonelanguages • Mandarin • Both boundary tones and superposition (Peng et al. 2005, Shih 1988) • Superposition only (Xu 1999, Yuan et al. 2002, Yuan 2004, 2006) • Cantonese • Boundary tones only (Wong et al. 2005) • Superposition only (Fox et al. 2008) • Thai • Evidence for boundary tones, but overriden by lexical tones (Pittayawat 2007) We need data on more languages if we want to do serious typology

23. Normal ways of expressing communicative functions in VN • Final particles (common in East Asia) • Grammatical functions • Yes-no question Trang đi làm không? • Imperative Trang đi làmđi! • Pragmatic functions • Confirmation Trang đi làm đấy. • Suggestion Trang đi làm nhá! • Paraphrasing and context • As in any other language

24. Intonation in Vietnamese: Instrumental studies • Global f0 variation • Globallylower/higher f0 (Đỗ et al. 1998; Nguyễn and Boulakia 1999) • Local f0 variation • Pitch range expansion in stressedsyllables(Đỗ et al. 1998) • Higher pitch on focussedconstituents(Jannedy 2007, 2008) • Higher pitch on sentence-final question markers (Nguyễn and Boulakia 1999; Vũ et al. 2006) • Analysed as boundarytones(Hạ and Grice 2010) • Intensity(Nguyễn and Boulakia 1999) • Imperativeslouderthandeclaratives • Duration(Nguyễn and Boulakia 1999) • Questions shorterthandeclaratives • Non-instrumental observations on Northern(Thompson 1965) and SouthernVietnamese(Trần 1967)

25. Why one more study? • Previous studies looked at frame sentences • … not controlled for segments, tones or syntactic structures (Đỗ et al. 1998) • … controlled for tone and segments, but only partly for syntactic structure (Nguyễn and Boulakia 1999) • … controlled for tones, but not for segments and syntactic structure (Vũ et al. 2006) • Our study uses simpler sentences, but controls for tones, segments and syntactic structures.

26. Research questions • Which intonational cues are predominant in Northern Vietnamese? • Pitch • Global or local? • Intensity • Duration • Is intonation realized through the addition of tones or through superposition (or both)? • How much inter-speaker variation do we find?

27. Methods: Wordlist • 6 sentences, all 4-words long • First 3 words: Always SVO with constant tone • Không [xo͡ŋm] is always the last word (« only » or yes-no question marker) • The sentences can have 4 different meanings, depending on the intonation • Ex: Ty ăn cơm không • Declarative : Ty only eats rice. • Annoyed declarative: Ty only eats rice. (I just told you!) • Yes-no question: Does Ty eat rice? • Command question: Ty, will you eat your rice?! Declar. Unmarked Questions Emphasis

28. Methods: Subjects and elicitation • 8 native speakers recorded in Hanoi • 3 men, 5 women • Speakers wererequested to produce the sentences appropriatelyaccording to givencontexts • Not a trivial task! • Each sentence wasrecordedthree times • 6 tones X 4 communicative functions X 3 repetitions: 72 sentences

29. Methods: Data processing • Sentences labelled and measured in Praat • Each sentence divided into 4 syllables • Each syllable measured at 5 equidistant points • Data inspected for doubling, halving and irregular vocal fold vibrations

30. Methods: Statisticalanalysis • Statistical analysis: GLMs in PASW (SPSS 18) • Conducted independently for each subject • Dependant variables at each sampling point • Duration • f0 • Intensity • Independent variables • Tone • Communicative function • Interaction

31. Results: Pitch range • No clear difference between comm. functions • f0 range expands from 1st to 3rd syll. • Likely due to coarticulation rather than intonation

32. Results: Pitch Questions have a final rise No clear contrast between questions and declaratives Emphatic functions higher than their non-emphatic counterparts Questions are high Emphasis No special emphasis Declaratives have a final fall Declaratives are low

33. Speaker variation in intonational f0 • Global effect: Higheroverall f0… • …for questions than for declaratives: 5/8 speakers • Frequency code (Ohala 1983) • …for emphaticthan for unmarked: 6/8 speakers • Effort code (Gussenhoven 2004) • Local effect on last syllable • Clearriseat the end of the question marker « không »: 3/8 speakers • Higher pitch at the end of « không » in questions: 1 more speaker (Total 4/8) • Clearfallat the end of the declarative: 4/8 speakers

34. Results: Intensity Annoyed declarative higher than normal declarative Command question higher than normal question • Higher intensity in emphatic functions • Effort code again • Consistent for 4/8 speakers • Incr. contrast towards end of sentence • No systematic divide between questions and declaratives

35. Results: Duration • There are stat. sign. durational differences in all speakers… • …but they are not consistent across speakers • Significant differences are not always on the same syllables • The differences do not always go in the same direction

36. Results: Summary • Strategies for marking communicative functions are variable across Hanoi speakers • Robust • Higher overall pitch marks either questions or emphasis • Common • Final rise for questions/Final fall for declaratives • Higher intensity (esp. sentence final) marks emphasis • Inconsistent • Duration seems speaker-specific

37. Responses to research questions • Which intonational cues are predominant in VN? • Pitch • Optional intensity contrasts • Is intonation realized through the addition of tones or through superposition (or both)? • Superposition is systematic • Focal tones are common, but optional • How much inter-speaker variation do we find? • A lot. Why?

38. Conclusions • Various intonational strategies available for communicative functions • Nonetheless, intonation plays a more subtle role than in non-tonal languages • Almost null for 2/8 speakers despite the exaggerated nature of the experimental task • Intonation is not grammaticalized. Rather, universal tendencies emerge • Frequency and effort codes

39. Where it all links up • Intonation in Southern Vietnamese • f0 seems more important in tonal contrasts: could that affect intonation? • Less leeway for f0 variation??? • Fewer and less frequent final particles • Intonation could be expected to be more important for marking communicative functions