An Acoustic Study of Mandarin Rhythm in Taiwan

This paper is to examine Mandarin rhythm spoken in Taiwan. Oral recordings of twenty speakers who took the National Exam of Qualified Mandarin Teachers held in Taiwan in 2010. Based on the oral scores, they were evenly divided into two different groups: high oral proficiency (HOP) and low oral proficiency (LOP). Rhythmic correlates in sentence reading were analyzed from two perspectives: (a) pitch contour: the highest F0, the lowest F0, the distance between the highest F0 and the lowest one within a prosodic word (PW), (b) timing pattern: syllable duration, vowel duration, consonant duration and vowel percentage (V%). Results indicated that speakers of HOP significantly outperformed those of LOP in most of the rhythmic correlates. Finally, suggestions for further rhythmic studies and pedagogical implications for Mandarin Chinese learners are offered.