Modeling pitch errors of Japanese intonational phrases spoken by a native speaker of Chinese

We compared pitch patterns of Japanese intonational phrases spoken by a native speaker of Chinese. Several types of pitch errors were distinguished according to pitch contour shapes within and across intonational phrases. These shapes differ categorically from one another—for instance, the learner uses flat contours while the native uses hump-like contours. Comparisons of the learner and native speaker show that (a) the learner’s intonational phrases are shorter, (b) the learner’s pitch contour repertoire is smaller, (c) the learner has difficulty spreading pitch declinations over multiple syllables, and (d) segmental pronunciation errors cause pitch changes perceived by natives as intonational phrase boundaries.