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Lexical tone and stuttering in Cantonese.
Thomas Law1,2, Ann Packman1, Mark Onslow1
1a The Australian Stuttering Research Centre , The University of Sydney , Sydney , Australia.
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics
|August 31, 2017
Summary
Stuttering in Cantonese speakers was not associated with any of the six lexical tones. This suggests speech therapy for stuttering in Western languages can be applied to Cantonese speakers without focusing on tone.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Speech Pathology
- Phonetics
Background:
- Cantonese is a tone language where pitch changes meaning.
- Research links stuttering to syllabic stress in Western languages.
- The relationship between Cantonese lexical tones and stuttering is unknown.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if stuttering moments in Cantonese speakers correlate with specific lexical tones.
- To compare stuttering patterns across Cantonese's six lexical tones.
Main Methods:
- Twenty-four adult Cantonese speakers who stutter read 78 syllables (13 syllables x 6 tones).
- Syllables were in a carrier sentence to minimize stress.
- Stuttering moments were analyzed across the six lexical tones.
Main Results:
- No significant differences in stuttering moments were found across the six lexical tones.
- Lexical tones in Cantonese may not heavily tax the speech motor system like syllabic stress.
Conclusions:
- Cantonese lexical tones do not appear to influence stuttering frequency.
- Speech restructuring therapies used for Western language stutterers are likely suitable for Cantonese speakers.
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