title: Lexical tone and stuttering loci in Mandarin: evidence from preschool children who stutter.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between stuttering loci and lexical tone in Mandarin-speaking preschoolers. Conversational samples from 20 Taiwanese children who stutter (CWS; M = 4:9; range = 3:2-6:4) were analysed for frequency and type of speech disfluency and lexical tone associated with stuttering-like disfluencies (SLDs). Results indicated that SLDs were significantly more likely to be produced on Mandarin syllables carrying Tone 3 and Tone 4 syllables compared to syllables carrying either Tone 1 or Tone 2. Post-hoc analyses revealed: (1) no significant differences in the stuttering frequencies between Tone 1 and Tone 2, or between Tone 3 and Tone 4, and (2) a higher incidence of stuttering on syllables carrying Tone 3 and Tone 4 embedded in conflicting (as opposed to compatible) tonal contexts. Results suggest that the higher incidence of stuttering on Mandarin syllables carrying either Tone 3 or 4 may be attributed to the increased level of speech motor demand underlying rapid F0 change both within and across syllables.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Iowa , Iowa City, IA , USA .
authors.forename: Fang-Chi
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Chou
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zebrowski
authors.forename: Shu-Lan
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D012660:Semantics; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013342:Stuttering / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013624:Taiwan
keywords: Lexical tone; Mandarin; preschoolers; stuttering loci