Tone and intonation in Cantonese English

Cantonese English tonal patterns are analyzed based on the description provided by K.K. Luke. Results of a production test with isolated words lead to the conclusion that the language has at least three intonations, declarative, emphatic and interrogative. The last two are expressed through the boundary tones L% and H%, while the first is characterized by having no boundary tone. The interaction with the word tone on the last syllable leads to a situation in which L-ending words (whose British English counterparts have non-final primary stress) either have a rising or a low final syllable, but H-ending words (whose British English counterparts have final primary stress) have high pitch, low pitch or high rising pitch. A comparison with British English shows that surface contours receive very different interpretations in the two languages.