Pitch patterns in the vocalization of a 3-month-old taiwanese infant

This paper studied pitch contours of a Taiwanese-acquiring infant at gooing stage. Breath group theory has shown that pitch patterns of this stage were physiologically-based [6]. Fall was expected to occur at the boundary of a breath group. It predicted that Fall to be the most common pitch contour, and the second high was Rise-Fall. But previous studies [8], [9] showed that Rise-Fall occurred more. We investigated patterns of an infant from six weeks old to twelve weeks old. Mean f0 of basic contours of this stage were also shown. The f0 range of Level, Fall, and Rise were reported. Our results showed four types of contours (Level, Fall, Rise, Rise-Fall) appearing at this stage. Consistent with the hypothesis, Fall was found to be most common. Rise-Fall was found to be the second high. Fall and Rise-Fall made up to almost seventy percent. Level contour was found to be rare. The mean f0 of the infant at 3month old was 400 Hz, higher than that of a toddler at 1;3 (370 Hz) and that of an adult (220 Hz). . The f0 range was 700 Hz, greater than that of a toddler at 1;3 (450 Hz), and an adult (300 Hz).