Comparing the rhythmic p(roduction)-center in Mandarin and Cantonese

Rhythmic productions of speakers of numerous languages show that syllables with different segmental content do not exhibit isochrony of any single acoustic event. Rather, studies across languages show consistent effects of onset and coda consonant and vowel, which together suggest an alignment point with the metronome near the onset of the vowel. This alignment is affected by the repetition rate, with faster rates inducing later alignment with the metronome. Chow et al. [JPhon 49, 55–66] reported productions by Cantonese speakers with an apparent alignment point at the beginning of the onset consonant, suggesting that the structure of Sinitic languages may determine a different alignment point. However, Lin and de Jong [JPhon 99, 101245] found Mandarin productions to be similar to those for other languages, but differing from this Cantonese data. The current paper presents productions by Cantonese speakers gathered with the same protocol as used in Lin and de Jong, finding effects of consonant type, repetition rate, presence of onglide, and consonant duration, with an alignment pattern similar to the Mandarin study, but different from the findings in Chow et al. These results, together with those in Lin and de Jong, do not support language structure as a factor in rhythmic alignment.