Standard Chinese contact and generational variation in an urban dialect tonal system

Evidence from Kunming

Bibliographic Data

ID23312108
AuthorsChenglin Nong (0009-0008-7431-3735, Universiti Putra Malaysia), Adi Yasran Abdul Aziz (0000-0002-8409-474X, Universiti Putra Malaysia), Ng Chwee Fang (0000-0003-2413-265X, Universiti Putra Malaysia)
Year2026
Volume12
Issue1
Publication date2026-01-23
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOpen Linguistics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2300-9969 • E-ISSN: 2300-9969
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/opli-2025-0095
OpenAlexW7171515601
LanguageEN
References cited28

In China, sustained promotion of Standard Chinese (Putonghua) has intensified dialect–standard contact, under which urban tone systems may exhibit generational differentiation. Using the Kunming urban dialect as a case study, this study examines tone-category selectivity and generational pathways across four tones (T1–T4). A controlled monosyllabic reading task elicited productions from 72 native speakers divided into three age groups and balanced by gender. F0 contours were extracted in Mini-Speech-Lab, time-normalised at nine sampling points (ST1–ST9), and converted to semitones relative to each speaker’s mean F0. Three slope measures and a Final Lowering Index (FLI), used as an operational contour-final diagnostic, were also calculated. Age-group differences were assessed using Kruskal–Wallis H tests and pairwise Mann–Whitney U tests, with Holm correction applied to both sets of comparisons. The results show tone-category and contour-phase selectivity. T1 remained broadly stable; T2 showed localised middle- and late-contour differences and endpoint variation; T3 showed the broadest differentiation across ST1–ST7 and the FLI; and T4 showed coordinated differences in relative pitch position and falling dynamics, mainly separating the elderly group from the two younger groups. A restricted ST1–ST7 sensitivity analysis showed that the principal T3 and T4 effects, as well as the T2 differentiation, were detectable before ST8 and ST9. The findings are compatible with selective, gradual, tone-specific variation under sustained contact with Standard Chinese rather than uniform tonal replacement.

Affect (linguistics) · Pairwise comparison · Point (geometry) · Promotion (chess) · Standard Chinese · Tone (literature) · Variation (astronomy) · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Phonetics and Phonology Research

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