Tonal distinctions in Cantonese.

The experiment reported here is a perceptual study of the six contrastive tones of Cantonese. The monosyllable was synthesized, and a large number of closely spaced Fo contours were applied to it. Listeners were asked to identify each synthetic stimulus as one of six Cantonese words which all have the segmental shape and differ only in tone. The response data were used to compare two impressionistic accounts of the tonal distinctions and determine which reflects actual Fo more accurately. In general, the results accord fairly well with straightforward predictions made from the impressionistic accounts, but there is one major exception. It appears that something in addition to differences in Fo is involved in distinguishing the low-low tone from the other tones.