Effect of tone on vocal attack time in Cantonese-speaking children

Abstract

Cantonese tones were shown to have significant effect on vocal attack time (VAT) in adult Cantonese speakers, with males produced greater VAT values than females (Ma et al., 2012). The present study aims to investigate the effect of tone on VAT in Cantonese-speaking children. Sound pressure (SP) and electroglottographic (EGG) recordings were collected from 55 native Cantonese-speaking children. 26 six-year-old and 29 nine-year-old children were asked to read aloud six monosyllabic or disyllabic words which contained all the Cantonese tones. One word was presented at the same time and children were asked to read the word immediately after the presentation. Results revealed significant differences between some contour tone (tone 2 and tone 4) and level tone (tone 1) pairs. Age and gender showed no significant effect on VAT values. Children demonstrated a clear different VAT profile compared with Cantonese adult speakers. The results support the idea that contour tones require more complicated pre-phonatory laryngeal settings. Different VAT patterns between children and adults suggest that they adopt different laryngeal adjustment strategies during phonation onset.