Tone Change in
Taiwanese: Age and Geographic Factors
Wi-vun
Taiffalo Chiung
The University of Texas at Arlington
Traditionally, there were eight tonal
contrasts in Taiwanese. It was reported that tone 2 had merged with tone
6. Therefore, there are only seven tones at present. Among the Taiwanese
tones, tone 5 is widely described as a low rising tone (12). However, some
scholars such as Ong (1993) have pointed out that tone 5 is a low
falling-rising tone (212). Tone 4 and tone 8 have recently been reported
that they are merging together. The purpose of this study is to provide a
systematic account with regard to the change in Taiwanese tone 5, tone 4,
and tone 8, based on acoustic measurements of tone values.
This analysis is based on data collected
from 30 Taiwanese speakers from different regions of Taiwan. Subjects were
asked to read Taiwanese lexical items written in Han characters. The
subjects were tape recorded and at a later time subjects' responses were
played into a computer digitized by the CECIL software/hardware speech
analysis package (JAARS, Waxhaw, NC). Once digitized, further analysis was
undertaken using MS-EXCEL. In this research I developed the following
parameters as criteria to measure the trajectory differences among tonal
values: (1) Angle of Tone (AOT), (2) Ratio of Tone (ROT), Beginning of
Tone (BOT), and Duration of Tone (DOT).
The results of univariate ANOVA tests
suggest that tone 5 is experiencing a diachronic change from low rising
(older generations) to falling-rising (younger generations), as well as a
synchronic change, which is contributed by geographic differences. As for
tone 4 and tone 8, age and resident place are crucial factors that
contribute to their change. In general, tone 4 and tone 8 are merging
together among the younger generations (age under 50). Geographically, the
distinction between tone 4 and tone 8 is preserved in the southern area of
Taiwan. These changes in tone 5, tone 4, and tone 8 might be the results
of language contacts between Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese since 1945, in
which year Chinese KMT occupied Taiwan and imported Mandarin as the
official language of Taiwan.
Key words: Taiwanese, tone,
language contact, Holo