Qinglong Zitang Differences of the speech of older speakers versus younger speakers in specific data points

566 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘bird’ Ynf20 ynj22 ‘claw’ yho22 yho22 ‘wing’ v=s24 vX24 ‘ant’ lns20 lBs20 ‘stinkbug’ khDs24 k=s33 ‘blood’ kL=s22 kL=s33 ‘to bite’ wo20 w`o11 ‘to nod’ M`f24 M`f31 ‘bird nets’ YtM20Ynf20 YBM20ynj22 ‘to sew’ ¯ho22 ¯Ho20 ‘to steal’ y[`f20 y[`f11 ‘ten’ sbho22 sbHo22 ‘child’ k=f20mh24 k=f20mh24 ‘only child’ k=f20sB33 k=f20sBf44 Difference in the pitches seem to be random. In summary, most of the differences between younger and older speech occurs in the nucleus, and the pitch values of closed syllable words. Much of the difference that occurs between older and younger speech seems random.

6.1.4. Qinglong Zitang

In studying the speech of the older and younger speaker of Qinglong Zitang, we found the following differences: 1. [ts’] and [sb’] do not occur on the same lexical items in the older and younger person’s speech. Although the aspiration is sometimes light, it is easy to distinguish the aspirated sounds from the nonaspirated sounds. The older speaker produced aspiration on only four lexical items; the younger speaker on slightly more items. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘afternoon’ srX1wM1 sr’X1w=M1 ‘gold’ sbHl0 sb’hl0 ‘three-legged stand’ sbhM1 sb’hM1 ‘evening meal’ sr’`t1 sr’`t1 ‘scissors’ sb`t1 sb’`t1 ‘cow’ sb’h sb’h1 ‘pestle for sticky rice’ ih0sr’Dh1 fh0srdh1 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 567 [w] and [v] vary randomly. The younger speaker produced [w] slightly more frequently than the older speaker. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘free time’ u`M4 v`M4 ‘reed’ uh3Mtn3 vh3Mn3 ‘cotton’ u`:h4 v`h4 ‘story’ unM1 vnM1 ‘tree’ u`h3 v`h3 There are just a few examples of when the younger speaker produced [v] and the older speaker produced [w]; ‘wing’ [ u=s7] younger versus [v=s7] older. The younger speaker has a tendency to produce [w], whereas the older speaker has a tendency to produce [v]. In addition to the variation between older and younger speech for the aspirated affricates, there is also some variation for [x] and [h], [j] and [ I], and a few other pairs. These variations are very infrequent though. 2. Except for X, there is little difference between the speech of the older and younger speaker with regard to simple vowels in open syllables. For X, the older speaker sometimes produced the allophone [ =], whereas the younger speaker often produced a vowel tending toward [L], and produced [ X] infrequently. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘chopsticks’ s=5 sL5 ‘to paddle boat’ s=1 sL1 ‘dry’ w=4 wL4 ‘snake’ MX1 ML1 ‘afternoon’ srX1wM1 sr’X1w=M1 In addition, there are some differences for the vowel pair [o] and [ B]. The older speaker produced [ B] only once ‘to leak’ [iB5], and produced [n=] once ‘mistfog’ [k`o6 ln=]. There are some differences for the vowel pair [ D] and [e]. There is more variation between the speech of the younger and older speaker with regard to complex nuclei and syllables with a final consonant. On lexical items where the older speaker produced [a:], the younger speaker did not. The length difference was very clear. Examples: 568 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘morning’ j`:M0w`s6 j`M0w`s6 ‘day’ Mv`:m1 Mv`m1 ‘lunch’ M`:h1 M`h1 ‘dirt’ m`:l5 m`l5 ‘water buffalo’ v`:h1 vDh1 ‘tail’ o`:h0i=M0 o`h0ihM0 ‘horn’ j`:t0 j`t0 ‘bat’ u`:t1 u`t1 ‘cotton’ u`:h4 v`h4 ‘three’ r`:l0 r`l0 Variation between [o] and [u] is a special phenomenon. Where the older speaker produced the final [ nM], the younger speaker generally produced [tM]. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘spider’ inM1jnM4j`t0 itM1jtM4j`t0 ‘belly’ snM3 stM3 ‘to boil’ inM0 itM0 ‘to mend’ unM0 utM0 ‘together’ snM3st`h5 stM3st`h5 There is also one example ‘pig pen’ where the older speaker produced the final [ nM] and the younger speaker produced [ t`M]. Where the older speaker produced [ Dh] infrequently [h], the younger speaker most often produced [ei] infrequently [ Dh]. Examples: 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers 569 English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘claw’ iHo7kh1 iHo7kdh1 ‘fin’ jh1 jdh1 ‘to reach out’ oh1 odh1 ‘to live’ wDh3 wdh3 ‘fire’ vDh3 vdh3 ‘to hit’ sDh1 sdh1 ‘two’ Mdh5 Mdh5 ‘left’ rtDh3 rvDh3 ‘thousand’ wDh4 wDh4 The younger speaker produced this phoneme slightly higher in the vowel space than did the older speaker. Other variations that occur do so only very infrequently. Before a final voiceless stop, u → [T] and i → [H] even [D] in the older speaker’s speech e.g., ‘tiger’ [jTj6]. Younger speakers produced the lax allophones very infrequently. On a few lexical items, where the older speaker produced a triphthong or diphthong, the younger speaker produced a diphthong or simple vowel instead. Examples: English Older speaker Younger speaker ‘bowl’ stDh3 sth3 ‘cucumber’ k=j7 sh`M0 shM0 ‘umbrella’ kh=M2 khM2 Where the older speaker produced [ t], the younger speaker produced [=t]. For example, ‘at’ [ fit4] older versus [fi=t4] younger. There are other instances of variation of nuclei between the speech of the older and younger speaker. For example, the phones [ D], [=], [a], and [?] vary, but these occur very infrequently, and without rule. 3. The pitch of the 3 rd and 5 th tones vary between the older and younger speaker’s speech. The other tones have very little variation. The younger speaker produced [35] pitch for the 3 rd tone, whereas the older speaker largely produced [44] or [55]. For the 5 th tone, the older speaker generally produced [24], sometimes [35]. The younger speaker produced [24] some of the time as well, but overall produced [35] somewhat more frequently. 570 6. Comparison of speech between younger and older speakers

6.1.5. Guiding Gonggu