Kuang Jianjing
Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2017 Sep;142(3):1693. doi: 10.1121/1.5003649.
This study investigates the interaction between voice quality and pitch by revisiting the well-known case of Mandarin creaky voice. This study first provides several pieces of experimental data to assess whether the mechanism behind allophonic creaky voice in Mandarin is tied to tonal categories or is driven by phonetic pitch ranges. The results show that the presence of creak is not exclusively limited to tone 3, but can accompany any of the low pitch targets in the Mandarin tones; further, tone 3 is less creaky when the overall pitch range is raised, but more creaky when the overall pitch range is lowered. More importantly, tone 3 is not unique in this regard, and other tones such as tone 1 are also subject to similar variations. In sum, voice quality is quite systematically tied to F0 in Mandarin. Results from a pitch glide experiment further suggest that voice quality overall covaries with pitch height in a wedge-shaped function. Non-modal voice tends to occur when pitch production exceeds certain limits. Voice quality, thus, has the potential to enhance the perceptual distinctiveness of extreme pitch targets.
本研究通过重新审视广为人知的汉语紧喉嗓音案例，探讨了嗓音质量与音高之间的相互作用。本研究首先提供了若干实验数据，以评估汉语异音紧喉嗓音背后的机制是与声调类别相关，还是由语音音高范围驱动。结果表明，紧喉嗓音的出现并不局限于第三声，而是可以伴随汉语声调中任何一个低音高目标；此外，当整体音高范围提高时，第三声的紧喉程度较低，而当整体音高范围降低时，第三声的紧喉程度较高。更重要的是，第三声在这方面并非独一无二，第一声等其他声调也会出现类似的变化。总之，在汉语中，嗓音质量与基频有相当系统的关联。音高滑动实验的结果进一步表明，嗓音质量总体上与音高高度呈楔形函数共变。当音高产生超过一定限度时，非模态嗓音往往会出现。因此，嗓音质量有可能增强极端音高目标的感知辨识度。
