The role of contour and phonation in Fuzhou tonal identification

This paper examines the role that a change in phonation and a slight contour in fundamental frequency (F0) have for the perception of the three phonologically level tones in the Fuzhou variety of Chinese. An experiment was devised whereby synthetic tokens with modified F0 heights were included among natural tokens and presented to native listeners who were asked to identify specific words from a given set when they heard them. The results of the experiment show that both phonation and slight F0 rise/fall are significant factors for the correct identification of the ‘level’ tones in Fuzhou. This paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the significance of these so-called ‘secondary cues’ for phonology.