Linguistic and Human Effects on F₀ in a Tonal Dialect of Qiang

Abstract

While both human and linguistic factors affect fundamental frequency (F(0)) in spoken language, capturing the influence of multiple effects and their interactions presents special challenges, especially when there are strict time constraints on the data-gathering process. A lack of speaker literacy can further impede the collection of identical utterances across multiple speakers. This study employs linear mixed effects analysis to elucidate how various effects and their interactions contribute to the production of F(0) in Luobuzhai, a tonal dialect of the Qiang language. In addition to the effects of speaker sex and tone, F(0) in this language is affected by previous and following tones, sentence type, vowel, position in the phrase, and by numerous combinations of these effects. Under less than ideal data collecting conditions, a single experiment was able to yield an extensive model of F(0) output in an endangered language of the Himalayas.