The development of gender-specific patterns in the production of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Mandarin Chinese
-
Fangfang Li
Abstract
This article reports on the development of gender-specific speech patterns in Mandarin children’s production of voiceless sibilant fricatives. Ninety-four children aged from 2 to 5 (gender-balanced) participated in a word repetition task, producing a series of words beginning with fricatives. Their speech was digitally recorded and acoustically analyzed. The results indicate that gender-related differentiation in /s/ and /ɕ/ occurs around age 4 and becomes more robust at age 5. The differentiation occurs due to the more anterior articulation location that girls employ in their speech in comparison with boys. In addition, 10 adults (gender-balanced) were recorded to probe the origin of this gendered speech phenomenon. Unlike children, adults only show robust gender-related differences in /ɕ/. Results comparing the speech of adults and children suggest that gendered variation in /s/ is potentially the result of a chain shift initiated by gender-linked variation of /ɕ/. These results are discussed with respect to their ramifications for our understanding of the organization and acquisition of multiple components of children’s phonological capacity.
Acknowledgments
Data collection and analysis were supported by the Ohio State University Target Investment Fellowship to Fangfang Li and Eunjong Kong, NIDCD grant 02932 to Jan Edwards, and University of Lethbridge Start-up Fund to Fangfang Li. I thank the staff in Songyuan No. 2 Daycare Center in facilitating participant recruitment and testing. I also thank those children and adults who participated in the study. Further thanks go to Nicole Rosen, the three anonymous reviewers, the guest editor, Erez Levon, for their help with the manuscript writing and revision.
References
Beckman, Mary, E. Benjamin Munson & Jan Edwards. 2007. The influence of vocabulary growth on developmental changes in types of phonological knowledge. In Jennifer Cole & José Ignacio Hualde (eds.), Laboratory Phonology, Vol. 9, 241–264. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Beckman, Mary E., Li Fangfang, Eunjong Kong & Jan Edwards. 2014. Aligning the timelines of phonological acquisition and change. Laboratory Phonology 5(1). 151–193.10.1515/lp-2014-0007Search in Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul & David Weenink. 2005. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer (Version praat 4.3.07). http://www.praat.org/Search in Google Scholar
Cao, Yun. 1986. 北京话语音里的性别差异 [Gender difference in the phonetics of Beijing Mandarin]. 汉语学习 [Chinese Studies] 6. 31–31.Search in Google Scholar
Cao, Yun. 1987. 北京话tɕ组声母的前化现象 [The fronting phenomenon of the /tɕ/class sounds in Beijing Mandarin]. 语言教学与研究 [Language teaching and research] 3. 84–91.Search in Google Scholar
Chang, Yung-hsiang Shawn. 2011. A corpus study of retroflex realizations in Beijing and Taiwan Mandarin. Proceedings of ICPhS XVII. 440–443.Search in Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-Ren. 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-Ren, Luo-Chang Pei & Fang-Gui Li. 1937. 中国音韵学研究 [Studies on Chinese phonology]. Beijing: The Commercial Press.Search in Google Scholar
Corriveau, Kathleen. H., Maria Fusaro & Paul L. Harris. 2009. Going with the flow: Preschoolers prefer non-dissenters as informants. Psychological Science 20. 372–377.10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02291.xSearch in Google Scholar
Fitch, W. Tecumseh. 1997. Vocal tract length and format frequency dispersion correlate with body size in rhesus macaques. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 102. 1213–1222.10.1121/1.421048Search in Google Scholar
Flipsen, Peter, Lawrence Shriberg, Gary Wismer, Heather Karlsson & Jane McSweeny. 1999. Acoustic characteristics of /s/in adolescents. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42. 663–677.10.1044/jslhr.4203.663Search in Google Scholar
Forrest, Karen, Gary Weismer, Paul Milenkovic & Ronald N. Dougall. 1988. Statistical analysis of word-initial voiceless obstruents: Preliminary data. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 84. 115–124.10.1121/1.396977Search in Google Scholar
Foulkes, Paul, Gerard Docherty & Dominic Watt. 2005. Phonological variation in child-directed speech. Language 81. 177–206.10.1353/lan.2005.0018Search in Google Scholar
Fox, Rob A. & Shawn Nissen. 2005. Sex-related acoustic changes in voiceless English fricatives. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 48. 753–765.10.1044/1092-4388(2005/052)Search in Google Scholar
Frisch, Stefan A. & Richard Wright. 2002. The phonetics of phonological speech errors: An acoustic analysis of slips of the tongue. Journal of Phonetics 30. 139–162.10.1006/jpho.2002.0176Search in Google Scholar
Fuchs, Susanne & Martine Toda. 2010. Do differences in male versus female /s/reflect biological factors or sociophonetic ones? In Susanne Fuchs, Martine Toda & Marzena Zygis (eds.), An interdisciplinary guide to turbulent sounds. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110226584Search in Google Scholar
Gordon, Matthew, Paul Barthmaier & Kathy Sands. 2002. A cross-linguistic acoustic study of voiceless fricatives. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 32(2). 141–174.10.1017/S0025100302001020Search in Google Scholar
Hayes, Bruce. 1986. Assimilation as spreading in Toba Batak. Linguistic Inquiry 17. 467–499.Search in Google Scholar
Heffernan, Kevin. 2004. Evidence from HNR that /s/is a social marker of gender. Toronto working papers in Linguistics 23(2). 71–84.Search in Google Scholar
Houston, Derek M. & Peter W. Jusczyk. 2000. The role of talker-specific information in word segmentation by infants. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 26(5). 1570–1582.10.1037/0096-1523.26.5.1570Search in Google Scholar
Houston, Derek M. & Peter W. Jusczyk. 2003. Infants’ long-term memory for the sound patterns of words and voices. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 29(6). 1143–1154.10.1037/0096-1523.29.6.1143Search in Google Scholar
Hu, Fang. 2008. The three sibilants in Standard Chinese. In Suzanne Fuchs, Rudolf Sock & Yves Laprie (eds.), Proceedings of the 8th International Seminar on Speech Production (ISSP 08), 105–108. Strasbourg: INRIA.Search in Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman. 1960[1941]. Child Language, aphasia, and phonological universal. Mouton: The Hague.Search in Google Scholar
Jongman, Allard, Ratree Wayland & Serena Wong. 2000. Acoustic characteristics of English fricatives. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 108(3). 1252–1263.10.1121/1.1288413Search in Google Scholar
Kent, Raymond D. 1992. The biology of phonological development. In Charles A. Ferguson, Lise Menn & Carol Stoel-Gammon (eds.), Phonological development: Models, research, implications., 65–90. Timonium, MD: York Press.Search in Google Scholar
Kinzler, Katherine D., Kathleen H. Corriveau & Paul L. Harris. 2011. Children’s selective trust in native-accented speakers. Developmental Science 14(1). 106–111.10.1111/j.1467-7687.2010.00965.xSearch in Google Scholar
Kuhl, Patricia K., Jean E. Andruski, Inna A. Chistovich, Ludmilla. A Chistovich, Elena V. Kozhevnikova, Viktoria L. Ryskina, Elvira I. Stolyavora, Ulla Sundberg & Francisco Lacerda. 1997. Cross-language analysis of phonetic units in language addressed to infants. Science 277. 684–686.10.1126/science.277.5326.684Search in Google Scholar
Labov, William, Sharon Ash & Charles Boberg. 2006. The atlas of North American English: Phonetics, phonology and sound change. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110167467Search in Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Ian Maddieson. 1996. The sounds of the world’s languages. Oxford & Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.Search in Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter & Zongji Wu. 1984. Places of articulation: An investigation of Pekingese fricatives and affricatives. Journal of Phonetics 12(3). 267–278.10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30883-6Search in Google Scholar
Lee, Wai-Sum. 1999. An articulatory and acoustic analysis of the syllable-initial sibilants and approximants in Beijing Mandarin. Paper presented at the 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, San Francisco, 1–7 August.Search in Google Scholar
Li, Fangfang. 2008. The phonetic development of voiceless sibilant fricatives in English, Japanese, and Mandarin Chinese. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University dissertation.Search in Google Scholar
Li, Fangfang. 2012. Language-specific developmental differences in speech production: A cross-language acoustic study. Child Development 83(4). 1303–1315.10.1111/j.1467-8624.2012.01773.xSearch in Google Scholar
Li, Fangfang, Jan Edwards & Mary E. Beckman. 2007. Spectral measures for sibilant fricatives of English, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. Paper presented at the 16th International Congress of Phonetics, Saarbrucken, Germany, 6–10 August 2007.Search in Google Scholar
Li, Fangfang, Drew Rendall, Paul Vasey, Melissa Kinsman, Amanda Ward-Sutherland & Giancarlo Diano. 2016. The development of sex/gender-specific /s/and its relationship to gender identity in children and adolescents. Journal of Phonetics 57. 59–70.10.1016/j.wocn.2016.05.004Search in Google Scholar
Lin, Tao & Lijia Wang. 1992. 语音学教程 [A course in phonetics]. Beijing: Peking University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Locke, John L. 1983. Phonological acquisition and change. New York: Academic Press.Search in Google Scholar
Mack, Sara & Benjamin Munson. 2012. The association between /s/quality and perceived sexual orientation of men’s voices: Implicit and explicit measures. Journal of Phonetics 40. 198–212.10.1016/j.wocn.2011.10.002Search in Google Scholar
Mingyang, Hu. 1991. Feminine accent in the Beijing vernacular: A sociolinguistic investigation. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 26(1). 49−54.Search in Google Scholar
Morton, Eugene. W. 1977. On the occurrence and significance of motivation-structural rules in some bird and mammal sounds. The American Naturalist 111(981). 855–869.10.1086/283219Search in Google Scholar
Munson, Benjamin, Jan Edwards & Mary E. Beckman. 2005. Phonological knowledge in typical and atypical speech-sound development. Topics in Language Disorders 25. 190–206.10.1097/00011363-200507000-00003Search in Google Scholar
Munson, Benjamin, Sarah V. Jefferson & Elizabeth C. McDonald. 2006a. The influence of perceived sexual orientation on fricative identification. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 119. 2427–2437.10.1121/1.2173521Search in Google Scholar
Munson, Benjamin, Elizabeth C. McDonald, Nancy L. DeBoe & Aubrey R. White. 2006b. The acoustic and perceptual bases of judgments of women and men’s sexual orientation from read speech. Journal of Phonetics 34. 202–240.10.1016/j.wocn.2005.05.003Search in Google Scholar
Nissen, Shawn L. & Rob A. Fox. 2005. Acoustic and spectral characteristics of young children’s fricative productions: A developmental perspective. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 118(4). 2570–2578.10.1121/1.2010407Search in Google Scholar
Nittrouer, Susan. 1993. The emergence of mature gestural patterns is not uniform: Evidence from an acoustic study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 36(5). 959–972.10.1044/jshr.3605.959Search in Google Scholar
Nittrouer, Susan, Michael Studdert-Kennedy & Richard S. McGowan. 1989. The emergence of phonetic segments: Evidence from the spectral structure of fricative-vowel syllables spoken by children and adults. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 32(1). 120–132.10.1044/jshr.3201.120Search in Google Scholar
Ohala, John. 1984. An ethological perspective on common cross-language utilization of F0 of voice. Phonetica 41. 1–16.10.1159/000261706Search in Google Scholar
Ohala, John. 1994. The frequency codes underlies the sound symbolic use of voice pitch. In John Ohala, Leanne Hinton & Johanna Nichols (eds.), Sound symbolism, 325–347. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511751806.022Search in Google Scholar
Pierrehumbert, Janet. B. 2003. Phonetic diversity, statistical learning, and acquisition of phonology. Language and Speech 46(2–3). 115–154.10.1177/00238309030460020501Search in Google Scholar
R Development Core Team. 2013. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Retrieved from http://www.R-project.org/Search in Google Scholar
Rendall, Drew, John R. Vokey & Christie Nemeth. 2007. Lifting the curtain on the Wizard of Oz: Biased voice-based impressions of speaker size. Journal of Experimental Psychology (Human Perception and Performance) 33(5). 1208–1219.10.1037/0096-1523.33.5.1208Search in Google Scholar
Shadle, Christine. H. 1991. The effect of geometry on source mechanisms of fricative consonants. Journal of Phonetics 19(3–4). 409–424.10.1016/S0095-4470(19)30332-8Search in Google Scholar
Shadle, Christine. H. & Sheila J. Mair. 1996. Quantifying spectral characteristics of fricatives In H. Timothy Bunnel & William Idsardi (eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP 96), 1517–1520. Wilmington, DE: Applied Science and Engineering Laboratories & Acoustical Society of America10.1109/ICSLP.1996.607906Search in Google Scholar
Stuart-Smith, Jane. 2007. Empirical evidence for gendered speech production: /s/in Galswegian. In Jennifer Cole & Jose Ignacio Hualde (eds.), Laboratory Phonology, Vol. 9, 65–86. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Search in Google Scholar
Sun, Weizhang, Ye Lu & Lijun Li. 1986. 吉林方言分区略说 (A synopsis of Jilin dialect regions). 方言 [Dialect] 1. 39–45.Search in Google Scholar
Svantesson, Jan-Olof. 1986. Acoustic analysis of Chinese fricatives and affricatives. Journal of Chinese Linguistic 14(1). 53–70.Search in Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter, Elizabeth Gordon & Gillian Lewis. 1998. New dialect formation and Southern Hemisphere English: The New Zealand short front vowels. Journal of Sociolinguistics 2. 35–51.10.1111/1467-9481.00029Search in Google Scholar
Vorperian, Houri K., Shubing Wang, Moo K. Chung, Michael E. Schimek, Reid B. Durtschi, Raymond D. Kent, Andrew J. Ziegert & Lindell R. Gentry. 2009. Anatomic development of the oral and pharyngeal portions of the vocal tract: An imaging study. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 125(3). 1666–1678.10.1121/1.3075589Search in Google Scholar
Werker, Janet F., Ferran Pons, Christiane Dietrich, Sachiyo Kajikawa, Laurel Fais & Shigeaki Amano. 2007. Infant-directed speech supports phonetic category learning in English and Japanese. Cognition 103(1). 147–162.10.1016/j.cognition.2006.03.006Search in Google Scholar
Xu, Shirong. 1979. 普通话语音和北京土音的界限 [The boundary between Standard Mandarin and the vulgar Beijing Mandarin]. 语言教学与研究 [Language teaching and research] 1. 7–22.Search in Google Scholar
Zhang, Qing. 2005. A Chinese yuppie in Beijing: Phonological variation and the construction of a new professional identity. Language in Society 34. 431–466.10.1017/S0047404505050153Search in Google Scholar
Zhu, Liyi. 2012. Retroflex and non-retroflex merger in Shanghai accented Mandarin. Seattle, WA: University of Washington MA Thesis.Search in Google Scholar
Zhu, Xiaonong. 2004. 亲密与高调 – 对小称调、女国音、美眉等语言现象的生物学解释 [Intimacy and high frequency: The biological explanation of sociolinguistic phenomenon such as diminutive tone sandhi and intonation as well as feminine accent]. 当代语言学 [Contemporary Linguistics] 6(3). 193–222.Search in Google Scholar
Zimman, Lal. 2013. Hegemonic masculinity and the variability of gay-sounding speech: The perceived sexuality of transgender men. Journal of Language and Sexuality 2(1). 1–39.10.1075/jls.2.1.01zimSearch in Google Scholar
© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Tracing the origin of /s/ variation
- Variability in /s/ among transgender speakers: Evidence for a socially grounded account of gender and sibilants
- The development of gender-specific patterns in the production of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Mandarin Chinese
- The substance of style: Gender, social class and interactional stance in /s/-fronting in southeast England
- Implicit and explicit gender priming in English lingual sibilant fricative perception
- The embedded indexical value of /s/-fronting in Afrikaans and South African English
- On the influence of coronal sibilants and stops on the perception of social meanings in Copenhagen Danish
- Tracing the indexicalization of the notion “Helsinki s”
- Comment: The most perfect of signs: Iconicity in variation
- Publications received between 2 June 2016 and 1 June 2017
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: Tracing the origin of /s/ variation
- Variability in /s/ among transgender speakers: Evidence for a socially grounded account of gender and sibilants
- The development of gender-specific patterns in the production of voiceless sibilant fricatives in Mandarin Chinese
- The substance of style: Gender, social class and interactional stance in /s/-fronting in southeast England
- Implicit and explicit gender priming in English lingual sibilant fricative perception
- The embedded indexical value of /s/-fronting in Afrikaans and South African English
- On the influence of coronal sibilants and stops on the perception of social meanings in Copenhagen Danish
- Tracing the indexicalization of the notion “Helsinki s”
- Comment: The most perfect of signs: Iconicity in variation
- Publications received between 2 June 2016 and 1 June 2017
