Cross-Language Influence on the Production of Mandarin /f/ and /x/ and Taiwanese /h/ by Native Speakers of Taiwanese Amoy
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Shu-hui Peng
Abstract
The present study examines the patterns of interference between a first (here, Amoy) and second language (here, Mandarin) by comparing the production of a Mandarin phone [f] (a ‘new’ phone) with another Mandarin phone [x] (which is ‘similar’ to an Amoy phone [h]) by three groups of native Amoy subjects differentiated by proficiency in Mandarin. Their Mandarin production was also compared to that of Mandarin monolinguals. The spectrum of each consonant was analyzed to show the frequency range and energy of the fricative. In general, native Amoy speakers interpreted Mandarin /f/ and /x/ in terms of their first language phones [h<sup>w</sup>] and [h], but showed different patterns of interference for different proficiency levels. The least proficient simply substituted the Amoy phones for the Mandarin. More proficient speakers could approximate the Mandarin monolingual phonetic norm for the ‘new’ phone [f] more accurately than for the ‘similar’ phone [x]. The most proficient showed little Amoy-to-Mandarin interference on even the ‘similar’ phone [x]. On the other hand, the most proficient showed some interference from Mandarin /x/ on their Amoy production.
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© 1993 S. Karger AG, Basel
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Further Section
- Contents, Vol. 50, 1993
- Original Paper
- A Gestural Production Model and Its Application to Reduction in German
- Phonetic and Phonological Features of Approximants in Athabaskan and Eskimo
- Cross-Language Influence on the Production of Mandarin /f/ and /x/ and Taiwanese /h/ by Native Speakers of Taiwanese Amoy
- The Use of Prosody in Disambiguation in Mandarin
- Further Section
- Libri
- Index autorum
- Publications Received for Review
- Announcement
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Further Section
- Contents, Vol. 50, 1993
- Original Paper
- A Gestural Production Model and Its Application to Reduction in German
- Phonetic and Phonological Features of Approximants in Athabaskan and Eskimo
- Cross-Language Influence on the Production of Mandarin /f/ and /x/ and Taiwanese /h/ by Native Speakers of Taiwanese Amoy
- The Use of Prosody in Disambiguation in Mandarin
- Further Section
- Libri
- Index autorum
- Publications Received for Review
- Announcement