Inter-talker Variation as a Source of Confusion in Cantonese Tone Perception

This study examined the effect of inter-talker variations on the perceptual confusion of Cantonese tones. We found that: (1) identification accuracy of six unchecked tones in Cantonese was influenced by inter-talker variations in a way that high tones like T1 and T2 were identified more accurately in high voices whereas low falling tone T4 were identified more accurately in low voices; (2) across the board, inter-talker variations had a relatively limited effect on the identification of low rising tone T5 and low level tone T6; (3) the confusion patterns across these six tones revealed that inter-talker variations resulted in perceptual confusion among tones with a similar F0 contour, but not those with different F0 contours. Findings of this study imply that inter-talker variations could be a driving force for Cantonese tone merger.