Lanyin Mandarin is a major regional variety of Mandarin Chinese with phonological characteristics that interact with the acquisition of the codified Standard Mandarin norm. This study examined the pronunciation of Standard Mandarin by 67 native speakers from the Lanyin Mandarin area using a large-scale subjective listening experiment (12 listeners, 6700 tokens), with deviations analyzed across initial consonants, finals, and tones. Based on the perceptual results, a pronunciation deviation database was established (N = 20,100 monosyllabic tokens), enabling targeted acoustic comparisons with Standard Mandarin. The results reveal several systematic patterns with quantified deviation rates. For initial consonants, the highest deviation rates were observed for /l/→/n/ (30.5%), /s/→/ts/ (25.5%), and /tsh/→/ts/ (20.2%), significantly exceeding their reverse substitutions (/n/→/l/: 13.3%, /ts/→/s/: 0.0%, /ts/→/tsh/: 15.4%; all p < 0.001). For finals, /iŋ/→/in/ showed the strongest asymmetry (61.2% vs. 21.9% for the reverse), followed by /əŋ/→/ən/ (40.2%) and /ən/→/əŋ/ (39.2%). Tonal deviations were dominated by Tone 3 identified as Tone 2 (31.7%), with Tone 1→Tone 2 at a lower rate (8.4%). These deviations exhibited significant directional asymmetries (e.g., /l/→/n/ vs. /n/→/l/: χ2(1) = 768.06, p < 0.001). Acoustic analyses indicated that consonant confusions corresponded to F2/F3 formant convergence (e.g., Lanyin-biased /l/ F2 values approached Standard Mandarin /n/), while nasal finals showed F2 fronting (higher F2 values approaching Standard Mandarin /in/). Tonal analyses revealed a compressed pitch range (2.4 semitones narrower than Standard Mandarin), with flattened Tone 3 contours contributing to Tone 2 confusion. Together, these findings demonstrate quantifiable, systematic, and directional phonetic patterns in the acquisition of Standard Mandarin by Lanyin dialect speakers, supported by converging perceptual and acoustic evidence.
Liu et al. (Thu,) studied this question.