An Experimental Study Of Tones In Boshan Dialect

Boshan is a large-sized city located in the central-southern part of Zibo in Shandong Province.By conducting acoustic experiments on two informants,this thesis presents a detailed description of tonal information in Boshan dialect,including the tones in citation syllables,disyllabic sequences and trisyllabic sequences.For the experimental instrument,the author uses a sound analysis software-Praat to do the acoustic analyses.The acoustic data are processed by Praat scripts and Excel software.And the five degrees on tones of Boshan dialect are worked out through FO normalization on the basis of T-values.Firstly,concerning the research on citation tones,we could draw three conclusions:(1)Citation tone pattern of this study is slightly different from that in traditional records.Shangsheng(T2)marked as a high level tone 55 has changed into a rising tone 45 or still sticks to 55.Qusheng(T3)marked as 31 turns into a high-falling tone 51,which covers the whole tonal range of the informant.Yinping(T1)still exhibits a concave shape and its pitch value is now marked as 412 or 323.(2)There are some slight differences between the tonal range of male and that of female.The tonal range of female is wider and higher than that of male.(3)The duration pattern of citation tones is ordered as:Duration of yinping>Duration of shangsheng>Duration of qusheng.Secondly,as for the study on tonal modifications in disyllabic sequences,the author reports that:(1)When T1 is followed by T1 and T3,it would change into T2.When the two identical T2s are adjacent in sequence,the first one would switch into a new falling tone 53.(2)As for the durations in disyllabic sequences,T3+T1 enjoys the longest period while T3+T3 bears the shortest one.(3)Boshan dialect is assumed to be a right-prominent dialect in which the final tone would never change its tonal category and the tonal changes in Boshan dialect are purely phonologically conditioned.(4)The tonal range of disyllabic sequences has been enlarged for both male and female.Finally,in light of the combinations of tone sandhi in trisyllabic sequences,the results reveal that:(1)Out of the twenty-seven combinations of trisyllabic sequences,there are altogether sixteen tone sandhi patterns.And two new tones including 53 and 31 are generated during this process.(2)Some new sandhi phenomena have emerged.T1 followed by another T1 or T3,would change into 53,31.For T2 followed by another T2,it could surface as 31,another falling tone or 414,the variant of T1.When followed by T1 and T3,the high-falling tone T3 would change into a high level tone T2(44/55)in "T2+T3+TX" combinations.(3)The combination T1+T1+T1 has been observed to be the exclusively rightward direction-sensitive pattern.(4)Similar to its performance in disyllabic sequences,the final tone of trisyllabic words would never change and the tonal changes in Boshan dialect are grammatically and morphologically independent.(5)The tonal range of trisyllabic sequences has been greatly enlarged for both male and female.