High rising terminals in first-and second-generation Mandarin-and Anglo-background speakers in Australia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/TheLinguisticProceedings/2025/16/01/017/000677Keywords:
high rising terminals, prosody, ethnolinguistic variation, acoustic analysis, Australian EnglishAbstract
This study examines High Rising Terminals (HRTs), rising pitch patterns on declarative utterances, among Anglo-Celtic, first-generation (Gen 1), and second-generation (Gen 2) Mandarin-background women in Australia. Of 7,204 intonation units analysed, 1,724 were identified as HRTs. Higher rates of HRT use were found among Gen 1 (26.5%) and Gen 2 speakers (29.7%) compared to Anglo speakers (19.4%), although only the Gen 2 difference reached statistical significance. Acoustic analysis revealed similar rise alignment across groups, with Gen 2 speakers producing smaller pitch excursions (3.09 ERB) and Gen 1 speakers producing larger excursions (4.53 ERB) than Anglo speakers (3.80 ERB). The findings suggest that Mandarin-background speakers use mainstream Australian English HRT patterns while employing them at higher rates, indicating convergence with and potential leadership in ongoing prosodic change.
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