Transcribing Tone - A likelihood-based quantitative evaluation of Chao's tone letters

Phil Rose

Transcribing Tone - A likelihood-based quantitative evaluation of Chao's tone letters

Phil Rose^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The accuracy of the widely used and International Phonetic Association-sanctioned Chao five-point scale of tonal transcription is examined quantitatively. Perceptually transformed acoustic data are used from two Chinese dialects with complex tone systems, and a measure derived of the conformability of the data using their likelihoods. It is shown that some tones conform well to the model, but others do not, with tonal pitch targets lying equidistant between the Chao integers. It is concluded that the Chao model is probably not an accurate reflection of the distribution of tonal pitch targets.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	101-105
Number of pages	5
Journal	Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH
Publication status	Published - 2014
Event	15th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association: Celebrating the Diversity of Spoken Languages, INTERSPEECH 2014 - Singapore, Singapore Duration: 14 Sept 2014 → 18 Sept 2014

Cite this

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title = "Transcribing Tone - A likelihood-based quantitative evaluation of Chao's tone letters",

abstract = "The accuracy of the widely used and International Phonetic Association-sanctioned Chao five-point scale of tonal transcription is examined quantitatively. Perceptually transformed acoustic data are used from two Chinese dialects with complex tone systems, and a measure derived of the conformability of the data using their likelihoods. It is shown that some tones conform well to the model, but others do not, with tonal pitch targets lying equidistant between the Chao integers. It is concluded that the Chao model is probably not an accurate reflection of the distribution of tonal pitch targets.",

keywords = "Bayes' theorem, Cantonese, Chao tone letters, Likelihood, Tonal F0, Tonal pitch, Wencheng",

author = "Phil Rose",

note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2014 ISCA.; 15th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association: Celebrating the Diversity of Spoken Languages, INTERSPEECH 2014 ; Conference date: 14-09-2014 Through 18-09-2014",

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journal = "Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH",

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AU - Rose, Phil

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - The accuracy of the widely used and International Phonetic Association-sanctioned Chao five-point scale of tonal transcription is examined quantitatively. Perceptually transformed acoustic data are used from two Chinese dialects with complex tone systems, and a measure derived of the conformability of the data using their likelihoods. It is shown that some tones conform well to the model, but others do not, with tonal pitch targets lying equidistant between the Chao integers. It is concluded that the Chao model is probably not an accurate reflection of the distribution of tonal pitch targets.

AB - The accuracy of the widely used and International Phonetic Association-sanctioned Chao five-point scale of tonal transcription is examined quantitatively. Perceptually transformed acoustic data are used from two Chinese dialects with complex tone systems, and a measure derived of the conformability of the data using their likelihoods. It is shown that some tones conform well to the model, but others do not, with tonal pitch targets lying equidistant between the Chao integers. It is concluded that the Chao model is probably not an accurate reflection of the distribution of tonal pitch targets.

KW - Bayes' theorem

KW - Cantonese

KW - Chao tone letters

KW - Likelihood

KW - Tonal F0

KW - Tonal pitch

KW - Wencheng

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84910086149&partnerID=8YFLogxK

M3 - Conference article

AN - SCOPUS:84910086149

SN - 2308-457X

SP - 101

EP - 105

JO - Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH

JF - Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, INTERSPEECH

T2 - 15th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association: Celebrating the Diversity of Spoken Languages, INTERSPEECH 2014

Y2 - 14 September 2014 through 18 September 2014

ER -

Transcribing Tone - A likelihood-based quantitative evaluation of Chao's tone letters

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