Phonation and Pitch: Perceptual Cues in Mandarin Tones

It is well attested that Tone 3 syllables are often, albeit not always, produced in creaky voice in Mandarin. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the roles of phonation in the perception of Mandarin tones, an area that has not received much attention. To obtain a better understanding of how creaky voice interacts with pitch, which is a primary cue in identifying Mandarin tones, this study conducted a perception experiment in which thirty native listeners were instructed to identify the tones on the first syllables of 144 disyllabic words as Tone 1 or Tone 3. The stimuli were synthesized by manipulating phonation types (modal vs. creaky) and pitch levels on a twelve-step continuum. Results show that creaky voice plays an important role, particularly when the target syllable has a higher pitch than the following syllable, leading to a significant increase in Tone 3 identification. It is further revealed that the perceptual effect of creaky voice becomes salient over the categorical boundaries where pitch cues are ambiguous. This indicates that while pitch is the most essential property in tone perception, phonation is integrated as perceptual cues, complementing pitch cues. An interaction between onset consonants and phonation in perception is also observed, which prompts the need for further research on the relation among tones, articulatory gestures, and phonation. The findings of this study suggest that a redundant phonetic property, namely the creaky voice of Tone 3 syllables, can play an important role in phonemic perception.