The Tone Variation of Chongqing Dialect

Abstract

Based on the acoustic experimental data from 53 subjects, we report the tone variation of Chongqing Mandarin from the perspective of dialect contact in this paper. The comprehensive analysis of both the pitch and duration illustrate the difference in the citation tones. Our results show that pitch is greatly impacted by age but not by gender. The tone curve is located on the top of the tone register in the group of aged over 50 years, at the bottom in the group of aged 20-29 years whilst the tone curve is at the middle in the group aged 30-49 years, who is the transition between the younger and older groups. As the age of subjects decreases, the rising trend of T1 (yinping) gradually increases and the register of T3 (shangsheng) gradually reduces, which indicates that whilst the maximal limit of register declined gradually, the convex contour in the beginning of T3 becomes more significant. The duration of tones is not affected either by gender nor age. Our data has some possible implications for the sociophonetic perspective in tone studies. The Standard Chinese has played a vital role in communication, which makes it possible that most of changes in Chinese dialects are those that are facilitating a movement towards it. However, our research on the tone variation of Chongqing Mandarin illustrates a possible deviating trend. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]