Summary
The present study investigated the effect of tonal changes on voice onset time (VOT)
between normal laryngeal (NL) and superior esophageal (SE) speakers of Mandarin Chinese.
VOT values were measured from the syllables /pha/, /tha/, and /kha/ produced at four tone levels by eight NL and seven SE speakers who were native
speakers of Mandarin. Results indicated that Mandarin tones were associated with significantly
different VOT values for NL speakers, in which high-falling tone was associated with
significantly shorter VOT values than mid-rising tone and falling-rising tone. Regarding
speaker group, SE speakers showed significantly shorter VOT values than NL speakers
across all tone levels. This may be related to their use of pharyngoesophageal (PE)
segment as another sound source. SE speakers appear to take a shorter time to start
PE segment vibration compared to NL speakers using the vocal folds for vibration.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 20, 2006
Accepted:
August 21,
2006
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
