An acoustic analysis and perceptual study of Thai tones produced by Vietnamese and Khmer speakers
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Abstract
This study aims to analyze acoustic factors and provided a perceptual test of Thai tones produced by Vietnamese and Khmer speakers. Tones produced by Thai native speakers were also used as a norm for comparison. Praat program version 4601 was implemented as an analysis tool. With repeat to the five tones used in Thai (mid tone, low tone, falling tone, high tone, and rising tone), it was found that 35 Vietnamese learners (native speakers of a tone language) and 35 Khmer learners (native speakers of a non-tone language) studying Thai as a foreign language acoustically produced clear static (mid and low) and dynamic (falling, high, rising) Thai tones. However, the Khmer learners produced fewer clear contour tones compared to the Vietnamese learners. On the perception test, 100 Thai learners listening to Thai tone words pronounced by Khmer and Vietnamese learners found difficulty differentiating words with a mid tone from those with a low tone. This study indicates that the effect of native speakers of the non-tonal languages and tonal languages in Thai tone words exposure incorporated with Thai tone production and perception. In addition, contour tones produced by Khmer speakers were steeper compared to those produced by Thai and Vietnamese speakers. In addition, the results of in this study were applied by Vietnamese learners in practicing Thai tones using a mobile application.
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