本研究利用聲學研究苗栗四縣客家話的六個單字調,並將聲學分析與傳統調查的結果相互比較以瞭解其間的差異。本研究的參與者為12名以苗栗四縣客家話為母語的中年層發音人,依據性別分成兩組,每組6人。本研究首先採集這些發音人的單字調,接著利用PRAAT測量基頻長度,並在基頻曲線上平均取11個點測量基頻數值。基頻數值隨後則依個人的聲調格局被轉換為聲調五度制T值,接著利用T值來計算每位發音人各個聲調的基頻均值(F0 mean)與基頻斜率(F0 slope)。研究結果顯示,傳統調查與聲學分析在苗栗四縣客家話的聲調描寫上有很大的差異。再者,性別因素在基頻均值上的差異顯著,但在基頻斜率上的差異並不明顯。最後,本研究企圖解釋傳統調查與聲學分析之間在調值描寫上的差異,並從社會語言學觀點針對聲調的性別差異提出說明。
This study explored six citation tones in Miaoli Sixian Hakka (MSH) in terms of acoustics, and compared the difference in tonal descriptions between acoustic analysis and traditional survey. Twelve middle-aged MSH native speakers participated in this study. According to their gender, they were evenly divided into two groups. This study recorded their citation tones, and used PRAAT to measure F0 duration. The F0 duration was evenly divided into ten sections, and the F0 values of the eleven dividing points were extracted. The fetched F0 values were then transformed into five-scale tonal T values, and the T values were used to calculate F0 means and F0 slopes of the target tones. Results showed that great difference existed in MSH tone descriptions between acoustic analysis and traditional survey. Furthermore, there was a significant gender difference in F0 mean of MSH citation tones, rather than in F0 slopes. Last, this study attempted to explicate the descriptive differences between acoustic analysis and traditional survey, and give sociolinguistic explanations for gender difference in MSH citation tones.