Generational differences in the low tones of Black Lahu
-
Cathryn Yang
,
James N. Stanford
Abstract
We investigate apparent-time variation of the low falling (T21) and low level (T11) tones of the Black Lahu language of Yunnan, China. Linear mixed-effects modeling of spontaneous speech shows that both tones have a higher F0 trajectory among younger speakers and in certain phonetic environments. Since F0 is known to lower with increasing age, for comparison we also analyze variation in the high rising tone (T45) and find no evidence of generational difference. This suggests that the effect of age on low tones is not due to physiological change across the life span. We leave open the question of whether this result reflects a change in progress or a stable sociotonetic difference between older and younger speakers. This study contributes towards two underrepresented areas of sound change research: (1) sociotonetic approaches to tone variation in naturalistic speech styles, and (2) engagement with Indigenous scholars who are cultural insiders in small rural minority language communities.
Funding source: Dartmouth College
Award Identifier / Grant number: Unassigned
Acknowledgments
We wish to thank the members of the Lahu community who contributed to this project. Special thanks to Jerry Fine for writing the R code used to produce the figures in this paper.
-
Research funding: Funding was provided by Dartmouth College’s Scholarly Innovation and Advancement Award, as part of the project Sociolinguistic Exploration of a Matrilineal/Matrilocal Society in Rural Southwest China (2018–2020).
-
Ethics statement: This study was conducted with the approval and supervision of the Dartmouth Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects, which is the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (IRB protocol #21447).
References
Barr, Dale J., Roger Levy, Christoph Scheepers & Harry J. Tily. 2013. Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language 68(3). 255–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.11.001.Search in Google Scholar
Bates, Douglas, Martin Mächler, Ben Bolker & Steve Walker. 2015. Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software 67(1). 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01.Search in Google Scholar
Chang, Gong’en. 1986. Lahu yu jianzhi [Introduction to the Lahu language]. Beijing: Publishing House of Minority Nationalities.Search in Google Scholar
DiCanio, Christian, Joshua Benn & Rey Castillo García. 2021. Disentangling the effects of position and utterance-level declination on the production of complex tones in Yoloxóchitl Mixtec. Language and Speech 64(3). 515–557. https://doi.org/10.1177/0023830920939132.Search in Google Scholar
Gao, Katie B. 2017. Dynamics of language contact in China: Ethnolinguistic diversity and variation in Yunnan. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi PhD dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Gussenhoven, Carlos. 2004. The phonology of tone and intonation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511616983Search in Google Scholar
Johnson, Daniel Ezra. 2009. Getting off the GoldVarb standard: Introducing Rbrul for mixed-effects variable rule analysis. Language and Linguistics Compass 3(1). 359–383.10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00108.xSearch in Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana & Stephen Levey. 2010. Contact-induced grammatical change: A cautionary tale. In Peter Auer & Jürgen Erich Schmidt (eds.), Language and space: An international handbook of linguistic variation, vol. 1, 391–419. Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110220278.391Search in Google Scholar
Kuznetsova, Alexandra, Per B. Brockhoff & Rune Haubo Bojesen Christensen. 2017. lmerTest package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software 82(13). 1–26. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v082.i13.Search in Google Scholar
Labov, William, Ingrid Rosenfelder & Josef Fruehwald. 2013. One hundred years of sound change in Philadelphia: Linear incrementation, reversal, and reanalysis. Language 89(1). 30–65.10.1353/lan.2013.0015Search in Google Scholar
Li, Yuming & Wei Li. 2019. The language situation in China, vol. 4, 2012–2013. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.10.1515/9781501511592Search in Google Scholar
Mansfield, John & James Stanford. 2017. Documenting sociolinguistic variation in lesser-studied indigenous communities: Challenges and practical solutions. In Kristine A. Hildebrandt, Carmen Jany & Wilson Silva (eds.), Documenting variation in endangered languages (language documentation & conservation special publication 13). Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.Search in Google Scholar
Matisoff, James A. 2003. Lahu. In Graham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 208–220. New York: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Ou, Jinghua. 2012. Tone merger in Guangzhou Cantonese. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Polytechnic University MA thesis.Search in Google Scholar
R Core Team. 2020. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. Vienna: R Foundation for Statistical Computing. https://www.R-project.org (accessed 1 July 2020).Search in Google Scholar
Stanford, James N. 2008. A sociotonetic analysis of Sui dialect contact. Language Variation and Change 20(3). 409–450.10.1017/S0954394508000161Search in Google Scholar
Stanford, James N. 2016. Sociotonetics using connected speech: A study of Sui tone variation in free-speech style. Asia-Pacific Language Variation 2(1). 48–81.10.1075/aplv.2.1.02staSearch in Google Scholar
Stathopoulos, Elaine T., Jessica E. Huber & Joan E. Sussman. 2011. Changes in acoustic characteristics of the voice across the life span: Measures from individuals 4–93 years of age. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 54(4). 1011–1021. https://doi.org/10.1044/1092-4388(2010/10-0036).Search in Google Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A. & R. Harald Baayen. 2012. Models, forests, and trees of York English: Was/were variation as a case study for statistical practice. Language Variation and Change 24(2). 135–178. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394512000129.Search in Google Scholar
Xu, Yi. 1997. Contextual tonal variations in Mandarin. Journal of Phonetics 25(1). 61–83. https://doi.org/10.1006/jpho.1996.0034.Search in Google Scholar
Zhang, Jingwei. 2019. Tone mergers in Cantonese: Evidence from Hong Kong, Macao, and Zhuhai. Asia-Pacific Language Variation 5(1). 28–49.10.1075/aplv.18007.zhaSearch in Google Scholar
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Introduction to sound change in endangered or small speech communities
- Where have all the sound changes gone? Phonological stability and mechanisms of sound change
- Where have all the sound changes gone? Examining the scarcity of evidence for regular sound change in Australian languages
- Cross-dialectal synchronic variation of a diachronic conditioned merger in Tlingit
- Vowel harmony in Laz Turkish: a case study in language contact and language change
- The evolution of tonally conditioned allomorphy in Triqui: evidence from spontaneous speech corpora
- Sound change and gender-based differences in isolated regions: acoustic analysis of intervocalic phonemic stops by Bora-Spanish bilinguals
- Place uniformity and drift in the Suzhounese fricative and apical vowels
- Flexibility and evolution of cue weighting after a tonal split: an experimental field study on Tamang
- The emergence of bunched vowels from retroflex approximants in endangered Dardic languages
- The expanding influence of Thai and its effects on cue redistribution in Kuy
- Speech style variation in an endangered language
- Sound change in Aboriginal Australia: word-initial engma deletion in Kunwok
- The dental-alveolar contrast in Mapudungun: loss, preservation, and extension
- Sound change or community change? The speech community in sound change studies: a case study of Scottish Gaelic
- Phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo)
- The evolution of flap-nasalization in Hoocąk
- Sound change and tonogenesis in Sylheti
- Exploring variation and change in a small-scale Indigenous society: the case of (s) in Pirahã
- Rhotics, /uː/, and diphthongization in New Braunfels German
- Generational differences in the low tones of Black Lahu
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Research Articles
- Introduction to sound change in endangered or small speech communities
- Where have all the sound changes gone? Phonological stability and mechanisms of sound change
- Where have all the sound changes gone? Examining the scarcity of evidence for regular sound change in Australian languages
- Cross-dialectal synchronic variation of a diachronic conditioned merger in Tlingit
- Vowel harmony in Laz Turkish: a case study in language contact and language change
- The evolution of tonally conditioned allomorphy in Triqui: evidence from spontaneous speech corpora
- Sound change and gender-based differences in isolated regions: acoustic analysis of intervocalic phonemic stops by Bora-Spanish bilinguals
- Place uniformity and drift in the Suzhounese fricative and apical vowels
- Flexibility and evolution of cue weighting after a tonal split: an experimental field study on Tamang
- The emergence of bunched vowels from retroflex approximants in endangered Dardic languages
- The expanding influence of Thai and its effects on cue redistribution in Kuy
- Speech style variation in an endangered language
- Sound change in Aboriginal Australia: word-initial engma deletion in Kunwok
- The dental-alveolar contrast in Mapudungun: loss, preservation, and extension
- Sound change or community change? The speech community in sound change studies: a case study of Scottish Gaelic
- Phonetic transfer in Diné Bizaad (Navajo)
- The evolution of flap-nasalization in Hoocąk
- Sound change and tonogenesis in Sylheti
- Exploring variation and change in a small-scale Indigenous society: the case of (s) in Pirahã
- Rhotics, /uː/, and diphthongization in New Braunfels German
- Generational differences in the low tones of Black Lahu
