A comparative study on tone realization in Cantonese-accented Mandarin and standard Mandarin

Abstract

The paper investigates tone realization in monosyllabic and disyllabic words in Cantonese, Cantonese-spoken Mandarin and Standard Mandarin, focusing on the deviations of tone realization in Cantonese-spoken Mandarin from standard Mandarin in monosyllabic and disyllabic words.The analysis on monosyllabic and disyllabic tone patterns shows that most of the tone deviations in Cantonese-accented Mandarin made by Guangdong Cantonese speakers resulted from negative transfers of their native language, Cantonese.