The influence of different tones of Mandarin Chinese on the temporal characteristics of nasalization

This study was designed to investigate whether the four different tones in Mandarin Chinese would influence the temporal characteristics of nasalization. Seven female and seven male subjects were enrolled in this study. Four nasal syllables/ma mi na ni/ in all four tones were embedded in two syllables with initial pressure consonants to form the stimuli. Then the nasal onset intervals, nasal consonant durations, nasal offset intervals, and the whole nasalization durations were segmented in the speech samples. The corresponding durations and ratios for the same syllable were compared pairwisely among the four tones by paired means t-test. Multiple statistically significant differences did exist among the four tones in both the durations and the ratios. The most important differences were as follows: Tone 3 has shorter nasal consonant durations than Tones 1 and 4, and shortest nasal offset intervals and whole nasalization durations among the four tones; it also has a larger nasal onset and nasal consonant duration ratios but least nasal offset ratios among all four tones. Different tones of Mandarin Chinese can influence the temporal characteristics of nasalization, and they may serve as extra cues that can help improve perception.