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An Acoustic Analysis on Mono-Syllabic Tones in the Ruian Wu Dialect
- 1 Zhejiang Normal University
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The Ruian dialect, part of the Oujiang branch of Wu Chinese, is situated at the intersection of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions. It is generally accepted that this dialect has eight distinct tones. Previous studies primarily employed traditional methods of auditory transcription, leading to discrepancies in tone values and contours, and lacking the necessary precision for an objective tonal system description.This study focuses on the Ruian dialect and conducts an acoustic study on speech samples from three generations of participants—elderly, middle-aged, and young—describing their tonal patterns. The study concludes that the tonal systems of the elderly and middle-aged participants are generally stable, with the following tonal patterns: Yinping 阴平(44), Yangping 阳平(331), Yinshang 阴上(35), Yangshang 阳上(14), Yinqu 阴去(51), Yangqu 阳去(22), Yinru 阴入(323), and Yangru 阳入(212). In contrast, the younger generation has seen a change in the Rusheng (入声), shifting from contour tones to falling tones, where the tone value of Yinru is 32 and Yangru's is 21.
Keywords
Wu Chinese, Ruian dialect, Mono-Syllabic, Acoustic Study.
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Cite this article
Lin,X. (2024). An Acoustic Analysis on Mono-Syllabic Tones in the Ruian Wu Dialect. Communications in Humanities Research,63,56-65.
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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Volume title: Proceedings of 3rd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
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