Acoustic Analysis of the Tones in the Shantou Dialect

DEDICATION I would like to dedicate my thesis and give thanks to my family especially my brother, who have always support and encourage me whenever it is needed. I also want to give thanks to my friends, who have helped me with the data collection in parts of this work. Without the support of my family and friends, this work would not have made possible. Many thanks, to my family and friends. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to give sincere gratitude and many thanks to my advisor, Professor Zhongwei Shen. His great linguistic knowledge and guidance have kept me improving throughout my pursuit of graduate studies. Professor Zhongwei Shen has given me a lot of creative ideas, insightful advices and support during the period of writing my thesis. Second, I would like thank Professor John Kingston, who has offered me great help during the experiment of this study. Last but not least, I express my sincere thanks to my thesis committee: This paper mainly analyzes the different tones in the Shantou dialect. The Shantou dialect is known as one of the branches of the Chaoshan dialect which is a subgroup of the southern Min. Compared to other subgroup southern Min dialects, one of the distinguishing tonal characteristics of the Shantou dialect is that it has eight tones while the others have seven. Common views have explained that the eight tones in the Shantou dialect are the result of the four Middle Chinese tones further splitting into the upper register and the lower register. Thus, the Shantou dialect has its unique position in the study of the tonal development of Chinese. In order to better understand this unique tonal phenomenon, with references to the four Middle Chinese tonal categories, the tonal system in the Shantou dialect is acoustically examined. With an acoustic tonal experiment, this study aims to discuss three questions. First, what are the Shantou dialect's tonal values? Second, what is the relation between its tones and the four Middle Chinese tones? Third, what is the tonal value difference between auditory perception and objective analysis? vii Based on the measurement of fundamental frequency of speeches from the selected native Shantou dialect speakers by Praat, objectively analyzed tonal values are provided. In comparison with an auditory perception of tonal value in previous studies, differences between the current study and previous research will be discussed. Moreover, I point out that the …