Liu Wen Dong Wenqi
Tonal variation is a central topic in the field of sociophonetics. Huantai dialect belongs to the Zhanghuan sub-group of the Canghui group of Jilu Mandarin. Traditional linguistic surveys suggested that the Yangpingshang in the Huantai dialect is a high-level tone, denoted as /55/. Acoustic studies by Dong & Liu (2021) indicated that the Yangpingshang is not a typical high-level tone, showing phonetic variation between the old and young speakers. This study examines Yangpingshang’s variation through acoustic and perceptual experiments. Acoustic analysis reveals a downward trend in the pitch curve of theYangpingshang, with the old showing a more significant decrease than the young. Additionally, there is a partial overlap in pitch distribution among the three tones, i.e., the Yangpingshang, the falling, and the entering tone. Regarding tone perception, the identification and discrimination experiments indicate a categorical perception between the Yangpingshang and the falling tone, while a quasi-categorical perception pattern exists between the Yangpingshang and the entering tone. According to the perceptual judgment scheme of level tones, this result suggests that, compared to the falling tone, the Yangpingshang is closer to the entering tone in terms of tone contour. Combining the results of acoustic and perceptual experiments, the rate of sound change is faster in the young than in the old, and the female exhibits a faster rate than the male. Regarding the direction of sound change, the overall tone contour of the Yangpingshang changes from falling to level, especially the young females. Lastly, combined with the dispersion theory, this study argues that native speakers adopt different discrimination strategies in different tonal contrasts to distinguish theYangpingshang, which is undergoing variation, from other tones in the tonal system.