Exceptional Tone Spreading and F0 Peak Alignment

The paper seeks to conduct a phonetic assessment of exceptional tone spreading by comparing tone spreading cases in Yoruba, Yao, and South Kyeongsang Korean. The tone alternations in the three languages have been analyzed as a rightward tone spreading in previous studies. A major finding in the present study is the asymmetric behavior of high tones in the languages: Unlike the tone alternation in Yoruba, those in Yao and South Kyeongsang Korean deserve an account in terms of phonetic implementation of high tone rather than phonological analysis of tone spreading with exceptional conditions. In the experiments, native speakers'speech data were pitch tracked and measurement was conducted on fundamental frequency (f0 henceforth) of pitch peak and on the time points of offset and onset of tone bearing syllables. A regression model revealed that there were no significant differences between non-spreading and spreading contexts with regard to the prediction of the location of f0 peak in Yao and South Kyeongsang Korean, while there was a significant difference in the case of Yoruba. The result evidences the claim that there is no spreading in Yao and South Kyeongsang Korean. The phenomenon previously considered as a phonological spreading in the two languages may result from f0 peak lagging.