CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
1.4 Research Questions
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contrast one vowel with another and four other minor features such as rhotacization, rounding, advanced tongue root, and nasalization (Ladefoged, 2006). The acoustic feature of vowel quality is mainly represented by the frequencies of the first two formants, the first formant (F1) and the second formant (F2). Generally, the first formant frequency decreases when the height of the vowel goes up and the second formant frequency decreases when the backness of the vowel moves backward.
Since conventional Hakka phonological studies cannot provide a precise and objective way to describe and analyze Hai-lu Hakka vowels, we adopt the method of acoustic analysis to describe the quality of vowels. This study is a phonetic analysis of the single vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs in Hai-lu Hakka. We hope that the formant frequency data provide a basis for the transcription of the Hai-lu Hakka vowel system.
1.4 Research Questions
This study aims to investigate the nature of Hakka vowels by acoustic analysis.
We try to answer the following research questions:
(1) How many single vowels in Hai-lu Hakka are there under study? A vowel sound whose quality doesn't change over the duration of the vowel is called a monophthong. Monophthongs are sometimes called "pure" or "stable" vowels.
All languages have monophthongs and many languages have diphthongs, but
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triphthongs or vowel sounds with even more target qualities are relatively rare cross-linguistically. Nearly all languages have at least three phonemic vowels, usually /i/, /a/, /u/ , and very few languages have fewer, though some have been argued to have just two, /ə/ and /a/. With the acoustic data, we aim to discover how many monophthongs are there in Hai-lu Hakka under study.
(2) How many diphthongs in Hai-lu Hakka are there under study? Diphthongs are types of vowels where two vowel sounds are connected in a continuous, gliding motion. They are often referred to as gliding vowels. Most languages have a number of diphthongs, although that number varies widely, from only one or two to fifteen or more. With the acoustic data, we aim to discover how many diphthongs there are in Hai-lu Hakka under study.
(3) What are the three vowels represented in the spectrogram? In phonetics, a triphthong is a monosyllabic vowel combination involving a quick but smooth movement of the articulator from one vowel quality to another that passes over a third. A spectrogram is a time-varying spectral representation (forming an image) that shows how the spectral density of a signal varies with time. Also known as spectral waterfalls, sonograms, voiceprints, or voicegrams, spectrograms are used to identify phonetic sounds, to analyze the cries of animals or many other
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fields. With the acoustic data, we aim to discover what the three vowels are represented in the spectrogram.
(4) What position should each Hai-lu Hakka vowel be located in a vowel space? Peter Ladefoged (1993) recommended use of plots of F1 against F2 – F1 to represent vowel quality. In the fourth edition of his book (Ladefoged, 2001), he changed to adopt a simple plot of F1 against F2, and this simple plot of F1 against F2 was maintained for the fifth (and final) edition of the book (Ladefoged, 2006).
Hayward (2000) compares the two types of plots, and she concludes that plotting of F1 against F2 – F1 "is not very satisfactory because of its effect on the placing of the central vowels", so she also recommends using a simple plot of F1 against F2. As a matter of fact, this kind of plot of F1 against F2 has been used by analysts to show the quality of the vowels in a wide range of languages. In this study, we adopt the simple plot of F1 against F2 as plotting the vowel space of Hai-lu Hakka.
For these objectives to be achieved, the thesis is structured as follows. Chapter two reviews the literature that is relevant to the topic of this thesis. Chapter three focuses on the methods adopted in the present study, including the details of the subjects in section 3.1. The design of the test words and equipments used in the study are shown in section 3.2. Procedures of the experiment and the acoustic measurement
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are presented in section 3.3.
Chapter four presents the findings and discussion of the results of the study.
Section 4.1 provides overview of the data. Section 4.2 presents the detailed data and spectrogram of monophthongs, Section 4.3 gives the detailed data and spectrogram of diphthongs, and the detailed data and spectrogram of triphthongs are shown in 4.4.
Section 4.5 is the summary of the findings. Concluding remarks are shown in chapter five.
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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This review of literature focuses on the previous studies that are related to the topic
of thesis. This review includes the literature on the history of transcription of vowel
system, the phonological system of Hakka, three studies of Hai-lu Hakka vowels, and
acoustic studies on Hakka.
This chapter is divided into five main sections. Section 2.0 gives an introduction to the transcription of vowel. In section 2.1, we give a brief summary of the phonological system of Hakka, including consonants, vowels, and tone. Section 2.2 provides an introduction to the phonological research on the Hai-lu Hakka vowels conducted by three researchers (Yang, 1992; Lo, 1990; Chen, 2000). The discussion on the three studies is provided in 2.3.
In section 2.4, an introduction is offered for the acoustic theory and approach. The acoustic theory and approach have been widely applied to linguistic studies of speech sounds cross-linguistically.
In section 2.5, acoustic phonetic studies on dialects of Hakka spoken in Taiwan and Mainland China will be introduced. Acoustic research on dialects of Hakka, including Liang (2004), Huang (2004), Cheng et al. (2009), and Zee & Lee (2008, 2011) will be summarized. Summary of this chapter and motivation of this thesis are
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included in section 2.6.
2.0 Introduction to vowel transcription
Description of phonetics is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds or signs (phones): their physiological production, acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status. On the other hand, phonology concerns itself with systems of phonemes, abstract cognitive units of speech sound or sign which distinguish the words of a language. A phoneme is the smallest contrastive unit in the sound system of a language. A phone is one of many possible sounds in the languages of the world. Phones that belong to the same phoneme, such as [t] and [tʰ]
for English /t/, are called allophones.
Many authors agree that vowel transcription is more difficult than consonant transcription (Ball, 1991, 1993; Butcher, 1989; Howard & Heselwood, 2002b). Vowel identification is more difficult and problematic than consonant identification (Cutler, Smits, & Cooper, 2005). Due to the constraints on perception imposed by individual phonology (Best & Tyler, 2007), there is greater difficulty with transcription of vowels than with that of consonants (Ball, 1991, 1993; Butcher, 1989; Howard &
Heselwood, 2002b).
The phonetic transcription of vowel sounds is based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) cardinal vowels. Cardinal vowels refer to a system of auditory and
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articulatory standard reference points whose symbols embody information about the fundamental vowel parameters of height, fronting and rounding. The IPA system provides the tools for describing a speaker’s vowel system without reference to accent or language, and it is valuable in its ease of interpretation by anyone trained in its use (Howard & Heselwood, 2002b). Phonetic transcription is the ideal form for establishing the characteristics of a speaker’s productions.
The IPA provides the framework for transcribing vowels, and each individual transcript should be interpreted in the context of speech patterns of the community.
One way to represent such community patterns is through a standard phonemic description of the dialect, and the other way is to examine the detailed phonetic transcriptions of speech with reference to this phonemic foundation. Either way, they should satisfy the requirement of representation but must also be based on the principles of the IPA which require symbols to be selected that best describe the articulatory and auditory quality of the speakers.
Acoustic analyses of speech data can empirically provide objective information about the speech signal. The interpretation of vowel acoustic analyses often relies on the correlations between the first two vocal tract resonant frequencies and the articulatory parameters as vowel height and fronting. Figure 1.1 illustrates the traditional vowel map with major IPA cardinal vowel positions indicated. The
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traditional vowel map is plotted by the values of formant 1 (F1) and formant 2 (F2) plotted on a graph with appropriately oriented and scaled axes.
Figure 1.1 Acoustic vowel space
Figure 1.1 is an acoustic vowel space showing how monophthongs can be objectively represented in the F1/F2 plane. With this graphical representation of acoustic data, we can provide objective foundation for comparing the relationships between vowel productions in actual spoken language and the abstract IPA cardinal vowel positions.
2.1 Hakka Phonological System
This section describes the phonological system of Hai-lu Hakka, including syllable structure, consonants and vowels of Hakka.
2.1.1 Hakka Syllable Structure
As one of Chinese languages, Hakka shares the same model of syllable structure
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with most Chinese dialects. The structure contains four components: Initial, Medial, Nucleus and Ending. Initial refers to the first consonant (except the glides [j] and [w]) in a syllable. Medial is the prevocalic glides. Nucleus is always a vowel or sometimes a syllabic nasal. Ending of a syllable in Hakka refers to nasals [m, n, ŋ], stops [p, t, k], or glides [j] and [w] (Chung, 2004). The rhyme is comprised by medial, nucleus and ending. There are at least sixteen possible syllable shapes, V, VC, VG, VN, GV, GVG, GVC, GVN, CV, CGV, CVC, CVN, CVG, CGVG, CGVN, CGVC, where G is a glide and N a nasal (Chung, 2004).
2.1.2 Hakka Consonants
In Si-xian Hakka, there are 18 consonants. There are 22 consonants in Hai-lu Hakka, by adding two palatal fricatives [ʃ] and [ʒ], and two alveolo-palatal affricates [tʃ] and [tʃʰ]. Table 1.1 shows the 22 consonants in Hai-lu Hakka.
Table 1.1 The 22 consonants of Hai-lu Hakka
Bilabial Labio-dental Alveolar Alveolo-palatal Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p pʰ t tʰ k kʰ high central unrounded vowel [ɨ] occurs only after the dentals [ts-], [tsʰ-], [s-] and the
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alveolo-palatals [tʃ-], [tʃʰ-], and [ʃ-], for example, [sɨ] 字‘word’ (Chung, 2004). Table 1.2 lists the six vowels of Hai-lu Hakka.
Table 1.2 The six vowels of Hai-lu Hakka
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e o
Low a
2.1.4 Hakka Tone System
The tone system of Hai-lu Hakka is introduced in this section. The description of tone system of Hakka follows the convention of tone letters of Chao (1930). The tone letter system of Chao (1930) divides the pitch into five levels, with the lowest being assigned the value 1, and the highest the value 5.
The tone system of Si-xian and Hailu Hakka is given in Table 1.3.
Table 1.3 The tone system of Si-xian and Hai-lu Hakka Si-xian Hai-lu
Hakka preserves all of the entering tones of Middle Chinese. In Hakka literature, an entering tone, or a checked tone, is not a tone in the phonetic sense, but rather describes a syllable that ends in a stop consonant, such as stops [p, t, k].
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2.2 Literature on the Studies of Hai-lu Hakka Vowels
Over the past few years, some studies have been made on the phonological system of Hakka. In the following sections, three phonological studies of Hai-lu Hakka vowels are summarized and compared. Among the three authors, there are several different hypotheses concerning the surface and underlying form of Hai-lu Hakka vowels. Yang (1992), Lo (1990) and Chen (2000) will be introduced in following sub-sections.
2.2.1 The vowel system of Yang (1957)
In the book of Yang (1957) The Hakka Dialect of Tao-yuan, Taiwan, Yang introduces the phonological system and vocabulary of Si-xian and Hai-lu Hakka spoken in Tao-yuan area, Taiwan. His observation and investigation come from his field study in Tao-yaun area in 1957. The vowel system of Hai-lu Hakka from Yang’s work will be summarized in the following sub-sections.
2.2.1.1 Underlying Vowels
The underlying vowels in the phonological system of Hai-lu Hakka proposed by Yang (1957) are presented in Table 1.4. The six vowels in Hakka sound system are /i/, /e/, /ɨ/, /u/, /o/, and /a/.
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Table 1.4 Underlying vowels in Hai-lu Hakka (Yang, 1957)
Front Central Back Table 1.5. The ten diphthongs include [ie, ia, io, iu, eu, ua, ai, au, oi, ui] and the three triphthongs include [iai, iau, uai].
Table 1.5 Surface vowels in Hai-lu Hakka of studies (Yang, 1957) Monophthong i e ɨ a o u
Diphthong ie ia io iu eu ua ai au oi ui Triphthong iai iau uai
2.2.1.2.1 High Vowels /i/, /ɨ/, and /u/ pronounced much closer to the cardinal vowel [i].
The high central unrounded vowel /ɨ/ has two surface variants, [ɿ] and [ʒ]. When /ɨ/ is after the dentals /ts-/, /tsʰ-/, /s-/, the vowel is [ɿ]. When /ɨ/ is after the alveolo-palatals /tʃ-/, /tʃʰ-/, /ʃ-/, it becomes the fricative [ʒ].
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The high back rounded vowel /u/ has two surface variants: [ʊ] and [u]. The tongue position of [ʊ] is between the high rounded vowel [u] and the mid back rounded
vowel [o] as in the following types of rhyme structure combination: [iu], [eu], [au], [ui], [uŋ], [ut], [uk], [iau], [iuŋ], [iut], and [iuk]. The 60 possible combinations of
rhyme structure of Hai-lu Hakka from Yang (1957) is provided in section 2.2.1.3.
According to Yang (1957), the tongue position of [u] is near the cardinal vowel [u] in the following types of rhyme structure: [un] and [iun].
2.2.1.2.2 Mid Vowels /e/ and /o/
Similar to high vowels, Yang thought Hakka mid vowels have surface variants in different environments.
The mid front unrounded vowel /e/ has two variants: [e] and [ ]. The tongue position of the vowel is close to that of a cardinal vowel [e] as in the following rhyme structures: [eu] and [en]. It is a lowered front mid vowel [ ] in the following types of combination: [ie], [em], [ep], [et], [iet] and [uet].
As for the mid back rounded vowel /o/, there are two variants: [ɔ] and [o ]. [ɔ]
appears as in the following types of rhyme structure: [oi], [on], [ion], [oŋ], and [ioŋ].
The tongue position of [o ] is lower than [o] but higher than [ɔ], and it appears as in the following types of rhyme structure: [io], [ok], and [iok]. On the other hand, in Si-xian Hakka, /o/ is always pronounced as a sound [o ] between [o]and [ɔ].
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2.2.1.2.3 Low Vowel /a/
Similar to high vowels and mid vowels, Yang thought Hakka low vowel has surface variants in different types of combination.
The low central vowel /a/ has four allophones: [a], [ä], [ ], and [ɑ]. The tongue position of the vowel is near the cardinal vowel [a] as in the following two types of rhyme structure: [an] and [uan]. [ä] is a more centralized vowel, and this variant appears as in the following types of rhyme structure: [ia], [ua], [ai], [iai], [uai], [am], [iam], [ap], [iap], [at], [uat], [ak], and [iak]. The vowel [ ] is lower than [e] and [ɛ], and it appears as in [ian]. In rhyme structures [aŋ], [iaŋ], and [uaŋ], the position of the
tongue is close to the cardinal vowel [ɑ]
2.2.1.3 Rhyme Structure
As mentioned in 2.1.1, the syllable structure of Hai-lu Hakka shares the same model of syllable structure with most Chinese dialects. The structure contains four components: Initial, Medial, Nucleus and Ending. Initial refers to the first consonant (except the glides [j] and [w]) in a syllable. Medial is the prevocalic glides.
Nucleus is always a vowel or sometimes a syllabic nasal. Ending of a syllable in Hakka refers to nasals [m, n, ŋ], stops [p, t, k], or glides [j] and [w] (Chung, 2004).
The rhyme is comprised by medial, nucleus and ending. There are at least sixteen possible syllable shapes, V, VC, VG, VN, GV, GVG, GVC, GVN, CV, CGV, CVC,
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CVN, CVG, CGVG, CGVN, CGVC, where G is a glide and N a nasal (Chung, 2004).
Yang (1957) lists 60 types of possible rhyme structures in Hai-lu Hakka as listed in Table 1.6. As for Si-xian Hakka, Yang lists 61 possible rhyme structures by adding [ieu]. The possible rhyme types of Hai-lu Hakka are listed in Table 1.6.
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Table 1.6 rhyme structures in Hai-lu Hakka (Yang ,1957)
CV CVV/CVC CVVV/CVVC
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2.2.2 The Vowel System of Lo (1990)
Lo (1990) proposed different phonetic and phonological description of Hakka spoken in Hsinchu County. The vowel system of Hai-lu Hakka in Lo’s study will be summarized in the following.
2.2.2.1 Underlying Vowels
According to Lo (1990), the underlying vowels in Hai-lu Hakka are listed in Table 1.7. The six vowels in Hakka sound system are /i/, /e/, /ɨ/, /u/, /o/, and /a/.
Table 1.7 Underlying vowels in Hai-lu Hakka (Lo, 1990)
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e o
Low a
2.2.2.2 Surface Vowels
According to Lo (1990), the surface vowels in Hai-lu Hakka are listed in Table 1.8. The eight diphthongs include [ie, ia, io, iu, eu, au, ua, ue] and the four triphthongs include [iai, iau, ioi, uai].
Table 1.8 Surface vowels in Hai-lu Hakka (Lo, 1990) Monophthong i e ɨ a u o
Diphthong ie ia io iu eu au ua ue Triphthong iai iau ioi uai
Lo’s (1990) generalization and analysis on Hakka phonological system and phonetic properties are summarized as follows. Concerning the high front unrounded vowel /i/, the rhyme structure combinations /ien/ and /iet/ are in complementary distribution with /iam, iaŋ/ and /iap, iak/. In Hai-lu Hakka, the actual pronunciations
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of /ien/ and /iet/ are [ian] and [iat]. The rhyme combination /iai/ is rare that it only occurs in colloquial conversation, thus there is no corresponding word for this vowel.
The high central unrounded vowel /ɨ/ has two variants: [ɿ] and [ə]. The alveolar
apical [ɿ] occurs after the dentals /ts-/, /tsʰ-/, /s-/, and the schwa [ə] occurs in [əm, ən, əp, ət]. They are in complementary distribution.
Concerning the high back rounded vowel /u/, four kinds of rhyme structure combination, [uat], [uet], [uot], and [uok], are disappearing gradually. For example,
the word [kuet] (meaning, country) is pronounced [ket] in Si-xian Hakka.
2.2.2.3 Rhyme structure
As mentioned in 2.1.1, the syllable structure of Hai-lu Hakka shares the same model of syllable structure with most Chinese dialects. The structure contains four components: Initial, Medial, Nucleus and Ending. Initial refers to the first consonant (except the glides [j] and [w]) in a syllable. Medial is the prevocalic glides.
Nucleus is always a vowel or sometimes a syllabic nasal. Ending of a syllable in Hakka refers to nasals [m, n, ŋ], stops [p, t, k], or glides [j] and [w] (Chung, 2004).
The rhyme is comprised by medial, nucleus and ending. There are at least sixteen possible syllable shapes, V, VC, VG, VN, GV, GVG, GVC, GVN, CV, CGV, CVC, CVN, CVG, CGVG, CGVN, CGVC, where G is a glide and N a nasal (Chung, 2004).
According to the analysis in Lo (1990), there are 63 types of rhymes in Hai-lu
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Hakka. The possible rhyme types are listed in Table 1.9.
Table 1.9 Rhyme structures in Hai-lu Hakka (Lo ,1990)
CV CVV/CVC CVVV/CVVC Syllabic nasal
i ie ien m
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2.2.3 The vowel system of Chen (2000)
Chen (2000) provides a description of phonological system and lexicon of Hai-lu Hakka in his field work in Zhudong, Hsinchu County. His observation of vowels of Hai-lu Hakka will be introduced in the following sub-sections.
2.2.3.1 Underlying vowels
The six underlying vowels of Hai-lu Hakka in Chen (2000) are presented in Table 1.10. The six vowels are /i/, /e/, /ɨ/, /u/, /o/, and /a/.
Table 1.10 Underlying vowels in Hai-lu Hakka (Chen, 2000)
Front Central Back
High i ɨ u
Mid e o
Low a
2.2.3.2 Surface Vowels
According to Chen (2000), the surface vowels in Hai-lu Hakka are listed in Table 1.11. The nine diphthongs include [ie, io, iu, eu, ai, au, oi, ui, ue, ua] and the three triphthongs include [iau, ioi, uai].
Table 1.11 Surface vowels in Hai-lu Hakka (Chen, 2000) Monophthong i e ɨ a u o
Diphthong ie io iu eu ai au oi ui ue ua Triphthong iau ioi uai
As for the Hai-lu Hakka vowels, Chen makes the following observation. When the single high vowels [i] and [u] occur as the last segment in the word, they are pronounced with higher tongue position. The high central unrounded vowel /ɨ/ occurs
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only after the dentals /ts-/, /tsʰ-/, /s-/ and the alveolo-palatals /tʃ-/, /tʃʰ-/, and /ʃ-/.
Regarding the combination of diphthongs, the mid vowel [-e] only goes with the high back vowel [-u] as in [eu] and [ue]. The mid back vowel [-o] only goes with [-i],
as in [io] and [oi].
2.2.3.3 Rhyme structure
As mentioned in 2.1.1, the syllable structure of Hai-lu Hakka shares the same model of syllable structure with most Chinese dialects. The structure contains four components: Initial, Medial, Nucleus and Ending. Initial refers to the first consonant (except the glides [j] and [w]) in a syllable. Medial is the prevocalic glides.
Nucleus is always a vowel or sometimes a syllabic nasal. Ending of a syllable in Hakka refers to nasals [m, n, ŋ], stops [p, t, k], or glides [j] and [w] (Chung, 2004).
The rhyme is comprised by medial, nucleus and ending. There are at least sixteen possible syllable shapes, V, VC, VG, VN, GV, GVG, GVC, GVN, CV, CGV, CVC, CVN, CVG, CGVG, CGVN, CGVC, where G is a glide and N a nasal (Chung, 2004).
In Chen’s (2000) observation and instigation of Hai-lu Hakka spoken in Jhudong, Hsinchu County, there are 59 types of rhyme structure, as listed in Table 1.12. In Chen’s observation, some rhyme combinations have few examples in Hakka vocabulary, such as [-ioi], [-iot], [-ep], [-uen], [-uat], [-uak], and [-uaŋ]. These rhyme combinations have only one or two real word examples in the lexicon.
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Table 1.12 Rhyme structures in Hai-lu Hakka (Chen, 2000)
Table 1.12 Rhyme structures in Hai-lu Hakka (Chen, 2000)