Production of neutral tone in Mandarin by heritage, native, and second language speakers

Abstract

This study examined the properties of neutral tone (T0) in Mandarin as produced by three groups: native speakers raised in a Mandarin-speaking environment (L1ers), second language learners raised in an English-speaking environment (L2ers), and heritage language speakers (HLers) exposed to Mandarin from birth but currently dominant in English. T0 production was elicited in both obligatory and non-obligatory contexts, acoustically analyzed, and perceptually evaluated by Mandarin L1ers. Acoustic data indicated little difference among groups in pitch contour, but significant differences in duration, especially in the non-obligatory context. Perceptual data revealed relatively low intelligibility of T0 overall, but also a group difference whereby L2ers tended to outperform HLers in the non-obligatory context; nevertheless, L2ers received the lowest goodness ratings, across both contexts. These results thus suggest that phonetic differences between HLers and L2ers are not unidirectional, but instead vary across aspects of the language in accordance with differences in speakers’ linguistic experience.