International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
Sauna
Sau na
F0 (Hz) 123.57 130.17 101.48 110.50
Duration (ms) 0.47 0.47 0.39 0.30
Intensity (db) 68.19 69.60 64.40 62.70
Guitar
Gui tar
F0 (Hz) 106.34 112.90 115.10 124.36
Duration (ms) 0.21 0.28 0.38 0.39
Intensity (db) 65.70 65.21 66.97 69.92
Carnivals
Car ni vals
F0 (Hz) 135.50 134.50 104.28 115.36 error error
Duration (ms) 0.32 0.33 0.13 0.20 0.51 0.38
Intensity (db) 70.12 68.83 65.75 65.73 64.72 62.66
Vanilla
Va nil la
F0 (Hz) 108.75 117.40 111.55 124.91 104.24 103.01
Duration (ms) 0.36 0.24 0.21 0.43 0.28 0.38
Intensity (db) 65.58 68.60 67.20 65.50 65.09 61.93
As shown in Tables 6 and 7, both highly proficient and less proficient speakers produced both stressed
syllables in the English donor words and their corresponding Cantonese syllables with higher F0 values. The
differences between stressed and unstressed syllables in terms of intensity and duration were found to be greater
in highly proficient speakers’ production than in less proficient speakers’.
Fundamental Frequency (F0)
Figure 2 below shows that highly proficient speakers produced both stressed syllables in the English donor
words and their corresponding Cantonese syllables with higher F0 values than their unstressed counterparts by
an average of 34% and 43% respectively while less proficient speakers also show a similar tendency but with a
slighter difference of 18% and 16% respectively.
F
0
(
H
z)
Figure 2. Comparison of average F0 values of the English donor word syllables and those of Cantonese loanword syllables
in the prototypes of highly proficient and less proficient speakers
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