Universal and Language-Specific Influences on Emotional Prosody Production

Emotional prosody is a core channel of human communication, yet the extent to which its expression is universal or shaped by language-specific constraints remains debated. While non-tonal languages such as English can freely use pitch for affective modulation, tonal languages like Mandarin and Wu must balance emotional expression against lexical tone requirements, with Wu further distinguished by its complex tonal inventory. This study examined how emotional prosody is produced across English, Mandarin, and Wu, and whether L1 transfer may occur. A total of 72 English, Mandarin and Wu speakers completed an elicited emotion production task, with Mandarin and Wu speakers performing it in both their L1 and in L2 English. Results showed that emotion robustly modulated prosody across groups, with happiness consistently producing the strongest acoustic effects. In both Mandarin and Wu, lexical tone influenced prosodic realization, yet emotion–tone interactions were limited, and emotion production patterns remained stable. Cross-linguistically, background did not systematically alter L1 productions, though subtle differences emerged for specific emotions. In L2 English, emotional modulation was again robust, with background exerting only a limited influence on pitch range alongside modest emotion–background interactions. Taken together, findings suggest that emotional prosody is universally salient and resilient across languages but is subtly shaped by language-specific prosodic structures that leave traces in L2 production. The study highlights the need to integrate universal affective cues with language-specific structural constraints.