Stagray J R, Downs D, Sommers R K
Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Clarion University of Pennsylvania 16214.
J Speech Hear Res. 1992 Dec;35(6):1406-9. doi: 10.1044/jshr.3506.1406.
Researchers describe Mandarin Chinese tone phonemes by their fundamental frequency (Fo) contours. However, tone phonemes are also comprised of higher harmonics that also may cue tone phonemes. We measured identification thresholds of acoustically filtered tone phonemes and found that higher harmonics, including resolved harmonics above the Fo and unresolved harmonics, cued tone phonemes. Resolved harmonics cued tone phonemes at lower intensity levels suggesting they are more practical tone-phoneme cues in everyday speech. The clear implication is that researchers should use the Fo only as a benchmark when describing tone-phoneme contours, recognizing that higher harmonics also cue tone phonemes. These results also help explain why tone-language speakers can identify tone phonemes over a telephone that attenuates selective frequencies, and suggests that hearing-impaired tone-language speakers may still identify tone phonemes when their hearing loss attenuates selective frequencies.
研究人员通过基频（Fo）轮廓来描述汉语普通话声调音素。然而，声调音素也由更高的谐波组成，这些谐波也可能提示声调音素。我们测量了经过声学滤波的声调音素的识别阈值，发现更高的谐波，包括Fo以上的分辨谐波和未分辨谐波，都能提示声调音素。分辨谐波在较低强度水平下提示声调音素，这表明它们在日常语音中是更实用的声调音素线索。一个明确的暗示是，研究人员在描述声调音素轮廓时应仅将Fo用作基准，同时认识到更高的谐波也能提示声调音素。这些结果也有助于解释为什么说声调语言的人能够在衰减特定频率的电话中识别声调音素，并且表明听力受损的声调语言使用者在其听力损失衰减特定频率时仍可能识别声调音素。
