Using voice quality to learn non-native tonal categories.
Kristine M. Yu · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2009
An artificial language learning experiment will be used to study if voice quality can be used to learn tonal systems. Cross-linguistically, tone, and voice quality can co-vary in different ways. For instance, Mazatec (Jalapa de Diaz), has three phonation types (modal, breathy, creaky) fully crossed with three level tone levels [Ladefoged et al. (1988)], while Mandarin has creaky phonation in Tone 3 and Tone 4, which are also distinguished from one another and Tone 1 and 2 by f0 contour [Davison (1991); Belotel-Grenié and Grenié (2004)]. The goal of the study is to investigate if English listeners unfamiliar with tone languages can use phonation-type contrasts to learn tonal contrasts in artificial tone languages differing in how tone and voice quality co-vary. There will be a comparison of how learners generalize from training to novel stimuli for artificial languages where voice quality and tone contrasts are correlated and uncorrelated cues.