Effects of Fundamental Frequency and Duration Variation on the Perception of South Kyungsang Korean Tones

The perception of lexical tones is addressed through research on South Kyungsang Korean, spoken in the southeastern part of Korea. Based on an earlier production study (Chang, 2008a, 2008b), a categorization experiment was conducted to determine the perceptually salient aspects of the perceptual nature of a high tone and a rising tone. The experiment tested the perception of isolated synthetic stimuli, in which the crucial acoustic parameters (i.e., timing of F0 peak, initial F0, and syllable duration) were systematically manipulated. The results are generally consistent with the previous production data, showing that these acoustic cues contribute to the perception of two tones, a high tone and a rising tone. The stimulus tends to be identified as a rising tone if the F0 peak is late in the syllable, the initial F0 is low, and the syllable is long, while the stimulus tends to be identified as a high tone if the F0 peak is early in the syllable, the initial F0 is high, and the duration is short. Each of these three parameters, although necessary, did not contribute equally to the perception of tone contrast. Between-subject variation, according to the participant's gender and language background, is also discussed.