Mandarin Chinese Speakers’ Production of English Vowel Duration as a Function of Coda Voicing and Syllable Number

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 91
Author(s):  
Eunhae Oh
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Chinese Speakers

Variation in loanword adaptation: A case from Mandarin Chinese

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832096144
Author(s):  
Yangyu Chen ◽  
Yu-An Lu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Forced Choice ◽  
Vowel Duration ◽  
Perceptual Similarity ◽  
Loanword Adaptation ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Adaptation Pattern ◽  
Syllable Duration ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Mandarin Speakers

Mandarin speakers tend to adapt intervocalic nasals as either an onset of the following syllable (e.g. Bruno → bù.lŭ .n uò), as a nasal geminate (e.g. Daniel → dā n.n í.ěr), or as one of the above forms (e.g. Tiffany → dì.fú. n í or dì.fē n.n í). Huang and Lin (2013, 2016) identified two factors that may induce the nasal gemination repair: (1) when stress falls on the pre-nasal vowel and (2) when the pre-nasal vowel is a non-high lax vowel. They hypothesized that Mandarin Chinese speakers insert a nasal coda to perceptually approximate the stronger nasalization and longer syllable duration associated with the stressed syllables, and the shorter vowel duration of a lax vowel because the vowels in closed syllables are shorter in Mandarin. The results from two forced-choice identification experiments and an open-ended transcription task showed that although Mandarin speakers’ choices of different repairs were indeed biased by the different phonetic manipulations, suggesting an effect of perceptual similarity, their decisions were mainly guided by native phonotactics. The overall findings suggest that phonotactic, phonetic, as well as non-linguistic (i.e. frequency) factors interact with each other, resulting in the variable adaptation pattern.

scholarly journals The use of discourse markers but and so by native English speakers and Chinese speakers of English

Pragmatics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binmei Liu
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Previous studies have found that but and so occur frequently in native and non-native English speakers’ speech and that they are easy to acquire by non-native English speakers. The current study compared ideational and pragmatic functions of but and so by native and non-native speakers of English. Data for the study were gathered using individual sociolinguistic interviews with five native English speakers and ten L1 Chinese speakers. The results suggest that even though the Chinese speakers of English acquired the ideational functions of but and so as well as the native English speakers, they underused the pragmatic functions of them. The findings indicate that there is still a gap between native and non-native English speakers in communicative competence in the use of but and so. The present study also suggests that speakers’ L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and overall oral proficiency in oral discourse affect their use of but and so.

English Nasalance Values of Chinese Learners of English

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Yilan Liu ◽  
Sue Ann S. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Language Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Chinese Learners Of English

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Although a number of studies have been conducted to investigate nasalance scores of speakers of different languages, little research has examined the nasalance characteristics of second language learners. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> The goal of the current study was to examine whether English nasalance values of Mandarin Chinese speakers are similar to those of native English speakers, examining the potential effect of the first language on the nasalance scores of the second language production. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Thirty-two adults (16 Mandarin Chinese speakers and 16 native English speakers) with a normal velopharyngeal anatomy participated. Nasalance scores of various speech stimuli were obtained using a nasometer and compared between the 2 groups. <b><i>Results and Conclusions:</i></b> Chinese learners of English produced higher nasalance scores than native English speakers on prolonged vowel /i/ and /a/, the syllable “nin,” and non-nasal sentences and passages. The first language effect on nasalance of the second language found in the current study suggests the importance of linguistic consideration in the clinical evaluation of resonance.

Acoustic Sources of Accent in Second Language Japanese Speech

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaori Idemaru ◽  
Peipei Wei ◽  
Lucy Gubbins
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Prosodic Features ◽  
Acoustic Measurements ◽  
Acoustic Characteristics ◽  
Chinese Speakers

This study reports an exploratory analysis of the acoustic characteristics of second language (L2) speech which give rise to the perception of a foreign accent. Japanese speech samples were collected from American English and Mandarin Chinese speakers ( n = 16 in each group) studying Japanese. The L2 participants and native speakers ( n = 10) provided speech samples modeling after six short sentences. Segmental (vowels and stops) and prosodic features (rhythm, tone, and fluency) were examined. Native Japanese listeners ( n = 10) rated the samples with regard to degrees of foreign accent. The analyses predicting accent ratings based on the acoustic measurements indicated that one of the prosodic features in particular, tone (defined as high and low patterns of pitch accent and intonation in this study), plays an important role in robustly predicting accent rating in L2 Japanese across the two first language (L1) backgrounds. These results were consistent with the prediction based on phonological and phonetic comparisons between Japanese and English, as well as Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. The results also revealed L1-specific predictors of perceived accent in Japanese. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature that examines sources of perceived foreign accent.

scholarly journals La influencia de dialectos chinos en el aprendizaje de la pronunciación de español

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danna Chen ◽  
Lili Wang
Keyword(s):  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Native Teachers ◽  
Chinese Dialect ◽  
Chinese Dialects ◽  
Shanghai Dialect ◽  
Los Grupos

Resumen: Este trabajo pretende mostrar la influencia fonológica de los dialectos chinos en el aprendizaje de español tomando el shanghainés como ejemplo. Se hace una comparación entre el inventario consonántico y vocálico, así como la entonación del dialecto shanghainés y del chino mandarín para encontrar las características fonológicas propias del primero que ayudan en el aprendizaje del español. La investigación revela que se facilita la pronunciación de las consonantes oclusivas sonoras y la entonación menos marcada para los hablantes del shanghainés gracias a su dialecto pero no les resultan fáciles los grupos consonánticos ni la vibrante. El gran número de consonantes nasales en el chino mandarín dificulta la distinción entre las sílabas que contienen los sonidos nasales y aquellas sin ellos. Por último, se propone el trabajo colaborativo entre el profesorado nativo y no nativo para emprender una enseñanza fonética correcta y eficaz. Palabras clave: estudio contrastivo, pronunciación de español, dialecto de China, shanghainés Abstract: This paper aims to show the phonological influence of Chinese dialects in Spanish learning Spanish taking Shanghainese as an example. A comparison between the consonantal and vocalic inventory, as well as the intonation of the Shanghai dialect (Shanghainese) and Mandarin Chinese are made to find the phonological characteristics of the Shanghai dialect that contribute to the learning of Spanish. The research reveals that the Shanghai dialect facilitate the learning of the pronunciation of occlusive voiced consonants and the intonation in Spanish, however, like other Mandarin Chinese speakers, the Shanghainese speakers also find it difficult to pronounce the consonant groups and the alveolar trill. The large number of nasal consonants in Mandarin Chinese makes it hard to distinguish between the syllables that contain the nasal sounds and those without them. Finally, the collaborative work between native and non-native teachers is proposed to undertake a correct and effective phonetic teaching. Keywords: contrastive study, Spanish pronunciation, Chinese dialect, Shanghainese

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