An acoustic and electroglottographic study of White Hmong tone and phonation

This study examines tone and phonation in White Hmong, a language with seven tones (traditionally described as: high, mid, low, high-falling, mid-rising, low-falling, and mid-low) and three phonations (low-falling tone is creaky, mid-low tone is breathy and the remaining tones are modal). Thirty-two speakers were recorded producing words with all seven tones; audio and electroglottographic recordings were made. Acoustic measures were: cepstral peak prominence (CPP), H1⁎, H2⁎, H1⁎−H2⁎, H1⁎−A1⁎, H1⁎−A2⁎, H1⁎−A3⁎, and H2⁎−H4⁎. Electroglottographic (EGG) measures were: closed quotient and derivative-EGG closure peak amplitude (DECPA). F0 and duration were measured. Results showed that the traditional tonal descriptions are accurate except for the high-level tone which is better described as rising and the mid-low tone, which is falling. Furthermore, the rising and low-falling tones are shorter than the other five tones. In terms of acoustic and electroglottographic measures, none of the measures tested distinguished all three phonation types at a given time point. Several measures, H1⁎, H1⁎−H2⁎, CQ, CPP, and DECPA, distinguished two phonation categories, suggesting that phonation contrasts are realized across several phonetic dimensions. Additional results showed that many of the acoustic and EGG measures were correlated with F0 and that closed quotient and DECPA were most strongly correlated with H1⁎−H2⁎.

► The White Hmong high-level tone is better described as rising.
► The mid-low tone is better described as falling.
► Phonation contrasts are realized across several phonetic dimensions.
► Closed quotient and DECPA were most strongly correlated with H1⁎−H2⁎.