Mandarin vowels: Intrinsic properties and interactions with tone

Abstract

This study examines how vowel quality and lexical tone interact with voice source behaviour in Mandarin Chinese. Six monophthongs (/i/, /y/, /u/, /ɤ/, /o/, /a/) were elicited in monosyllabic words under four tone conditions, both in carrier phrases and citation form, from ten female and two male native speakers. Relevant acoustic parameters (f0, jitter, shimmer, HNR, CPPS) were extracted and compared across vowel and tone conditions using mixed-effect models. Results suggest that different vowel qualities are associated with differences in voice quality parameters. In general, close vowels (/i/, /u/, /y/) showed higher f0 and HNR and lower jitter and shimmer than /a/, indicating more regular phonation. /u/ exhibited lower CPPS than other vowels. The effect of different tonal environment (particularly Tones 3 and 4) on phonation was not the same for all vowels. Close vowels (/i/, /u/, /y/) tended to show less tone-related phonatory instability, whereas the opposite was found for close-mid back vowels (/ɤ/, /o/). These findings suggest that articulatory configurations and the realisation of tonal targets tend to co-vary. The study provides preliminary evidence from a tonal language that source and filter characteristics interact in shaping phonatory outcomes, with potential relevance for tonal phonetics and applied speech research.