Tonal identification in whispered speech

Abstract

This project aims to examine whether, and how, non-F0 cues facilitate the identification of lexical tones. A perception experiment is designed to explicitly test the impact of duration cues for Mandarin lexical tones when F0 is absent. We take a novel approach in which the secondary cue of interest is held constant, effectively controlling the type of information listeners receive. Future studies can potentially extend this methodology to examine other relevant cues, such as temporal envelope and intensity. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, to propose an explanation for the inconsistent conclusions drawn in the literature on tonal identification in whispered speech; second, to devise a more well-controlled study shedding light on the nature of tonal perception.