Doctoral Dissertation Research: An Acoustic and Articulatory Study of Burmese Tone

许多语言使用音调，它被定义为音高模式的对比，以创建单词之间的区别。然而，缅甸语是不寻常的，因为它的“音调”对比涉及一种很难理解的音高和呼吸或吱吱作响的声音质量的组合。本研究探讨了普遍存在的语音质量编码的词汇对比的语言，重点是在缅甸语的音调对比的问题。这项研究的实验将测试哪些声学和发音维度与每个音调的产生最密切相关。12名缅甸人将阅读一个对照词的脚本列表，一次是戴着测量声门开放的传感器（电声门图），第二次是戴着测量口腔和鼻子气流的口鼻面罩。这两种非侵入性的技术提供了一种方法来测量负责音调的区别的生理状态，因此提供的数据，将增加研究的数字分析的声学wavelength.The研究有助于语音研究之间的关系调查（间接但容易访问）的声学信号和气流和声门宽度的直接发音措施。这一研究对声调发展（声调发生）理论以及更广泛的语言变化理论也有重要意义。因此，更好地了解缅甸语目前的对比对语言如何以及为什么随着时间的推移而发生声音变化并形成新的语言或方言社区的社会文化问题具有影响。 最后，更清楚地了解缅甸语音节之间的差异将有助于我们了解说话者控制下的声音结构的维度。这些知识可以改善语言教学，特别是缅甸语和其他音调语言，以及一般的第二语言和外语。

Many languages use tone, which is defined as a contrast in pitch pattern, to create a distinction between words. Burmese is unusual, however, in that its "tone" contrasts involve a poorly-understood combination of pitch and breathy or creaky voice quality. This study investigates the phonetic qualities that are universally available to encode the lexical contrasts of a language, focusing on the problem of tonal contrast in Burmese. The experiments conducted for this study will test which acoustic and articulatory dimensions are most strongly associated with the production of each tone. Twelve Burmese speakers will read a scripted list of contrasting words, once while wearing sensors that measure the opening of the glottis (electroglottography) and a second time wearing an oro-nasal mask that measures airflow from the mouth and nose. Both of these non-invasive techniques offer a way to measure the physiological states responsible for tonal distinctions and therefore provide data that will augment the study's digital analysis of the acoustic waveforms.The study contributes to phonetic research by investigating relationships between the (indirect but easily accessible) acoustic signal and direct articulatory measures of airflow and glottal width. The research is also significant for the theory of tone development (tonogenesis), and language change more generally. Better understanding of the present contrast in Burmese thus has implications for the socio-cultural issues of how and why languages undergo sound change over time and form new language or dialect communities. Finally, a clearer knowledge of how Burmese syllables differ from one another will contribute to our understanding of the dimensions of sound structure that are under the speaker's control. This knowledge can improve language teaching, of Burmese and other tonal languages specifically, and of second and foreign languages in general.