The Role of Syllable Duration in the Perception and Imitation of Checked Versus Unchecked Tones in Taiwanese Southern Min

The imitation of phonetic features is often mediated by phonological contrasts, with a stronger mediation effect for critical cues. However, it remains unclear whether syllable duration, which has been only examined as a noncritical cue in previous research, is mediated in the same way as other features when it is critical to the imitated contrast. In this study, we conducted two experiments. In Experiment 1, we investigated the role of syllable duration in the perception of the checked versus unchecked tonal contrasts in Taiwanese Southern Min (TSM). Results showed that syllable duration is a critical cue for distinguishing the checked versus unchecked tones of the mid register but not for those of the high register. Therefore, in Experiment 2, we examined how syllable duration is imitated along the checked versus unchecked tonal contrast in the mid register. Results showed that, unlike other features such as voice onset time (VOT) and fundamental frequency (F0), the imitation of syllable duration is minimally mediated by the phonological contrast, even when it serves as a critical cue. This finding suggests that syllable duration has a unique property that allows it to bypass phonological mediation and adds to our knowledge of phonetic imitation being feature-specific rather than feature-general.