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Tone features, tone perception, and peak alignment in Thai.

Elizabeth Zsiga¹, Rattima Nitisaroj

¹Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057-1051, USA. zsigae@georgetown.edu

Language and Speech

|November 3, 2007

Summary

This study shows that high and low pitch targets linked to moras are key to perceiving Thai tones. This finding simplifies understanding tone production and perception in the Thai language.

Area of Science:

Phonetics
Psycholinguistics
Linguistic Phonology

Background:

Thai possesses a complex five-way tonal system.
Previous research has explored the acoustic and perceptual correlates of Thai tones.

Purpose of the Study:

To test the hypothesis that high (H) and low (L) pitch targets aligned to moras are the primary perceptual cues for Thai tones.
To establish a direct mapping between abstract autosegmental features and the production/perception of Thai tones.

Main Methods:

Conducted four perception studies.
Utilized both natural and digitally manipulated speech stimuli.
Investigated listener responses to variations in pitch and temporal alignment.

Main Results:

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Perception data support the hypothesis that pitch targets aligned to moras are crucial for distinguishing Thai tones.
Demonstrated the effectiveness of associating abstract features (H, L) with moras for explaining tone perception.

Conclusions:

The mora-alignment of pitch targets provides a robust account of Thai contour tone perception.
This framework has implications for theories of distinctive tonal features and pitch target alignment.