Tonal F. Variation in Manange (Tibeto-Burman, Nepal): A Case Study

Author unknown. 45 p.This study examines F0 variation in the lexical tone system of Manange (Tibeto-Burman, Nepal), with an eye to within- and between-speaker patterns of variation. Of particular relevance are the sociolinguistic and phonological dimensions of merger-type changes that are observed for some speakers and absent for others. An acoustic phonetic examination of tone in Manange with primarily z-score normalization as the basis for generalizations, while useful in impressionistically restoring some dimension of parallelism with the auditory properties, obscures the sub-phonemic mechanisms at play behind the cases of leveling. In addition to z-score portrayal, the significance of F0 as indicative of the four tones are also considered via comparisons of means procedures (Analysis of Variance).