TTLV: Phonetic characteristics of the original Hanoi dialect

MASTER'S THESIS INFORMATION

1. Student's full name:Nguyen Thi Hanh                       

2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: October 14, 1991

4. Place of birth: Liep Tuyet, Quoc Oai, Ha Tay

5. Decision on recognition of students No. 2998/2013/QD-XHNV-SDH dated December 30, 2013 of the President of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

6. Changes in the training process:

7. Thesis topic name:Phonetic characteristics of the original Hanoi dialect

8. Major: Linguistics Code: 60.22.01

9. Scientific instructor:Assoc.Prof.Dr. Trinh Cam Lan, Department of Linguistics, University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

10. Summary of thesis results:

The thesis has analyzed and described the phonetic characteristics of the original Hanoi dialect based on the results of experimental analysis and auditory perception of the five components of Vietnamese syllables: tone, initial sound, medial sound, main sound and final sound in comparison with the phonetic characteristics of other regions of Hanoi in particular and other dialects in general. The specific results are as follows:

- Regarding tones: the original Hanoi tone system has 6 tones, the tones have differences in pitch and duration, in which tone 1 is the longest tone, tone 4 is the shortest tone. The variations in the contours of the tones are very diverse. The tones have quite close starting pitches but the closer they are to the ending time, the further apart they are.

- Regarding initial consonants: the initial sound system in Hanoi has only 19 consonants. The consonants /ʈ, ş, ʐ/ tend to be converted to /c, s, z/, which means that the initial sound system in Hanoi lacks the series of tongue-twisting consonants.

- Regarding the intersound: like the Vietnamese language, the intersound in the original Hanoi language is a system created by the contrast between two phonemes, one with positive content, the intersound /-w-/ and one with negative content, the intersound zero. The combinations created by the intersound /-w-/ and the main sound to form rhymes are considered the most typical and complete for the original Hanoi language (also known as the Hanoi language in the Old Quarter).

- Regarding the main sounds: The main sounds of Hanoi are a system of 16 vowel phonemes. According to the analysis results we obtained, this system has differences between male and female voices: the average pitch of formants in men is always lower. Most of the vowels start at similar formant pitches, but the final formants have a clear difference. In the female voice, the vowel /i/ starts at the lowest formant pitch but ends at a higher pitch than the other sounds.

- About final sounds: Hanoi final sounds are a system of 8 phonemes. In the final consonants, the contrast in duration of the nasal consonant group /m, n, ŋ/ with the stop consonants /p, t, k/ creates a short-long contrast. In syllables with shorter vowels, the final consonant has a longer duration and vice versa.

11. Practical application:

12. Further research directions:

13. Published works related to the thesis:

INFORMATION ON MASTER'S THESIS

1. Full name: Nguyen Thi Hanh 2. Sex: Female

3. Date of birth: October 14, 1991 4. Place of birth: Quoc Oai, Ha Tay

5. Admission decision number: 2998/2013/QD-XHNV-SDH Dated December 30, 2013,by the Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU - Hanoi

6. Changes in academic process:

7. Official thesis title: Phonological characteristics of original Hanoi an accent

8. Major: LinguisticsCode: 60.22.01

9. Supervisors: Assoc Prof. Trinh Cam Lan. PhD, PhDFaculty of Linguistics,University of Social sciences and Humanities.

10. Summary of the findings of the thesis:

The thesis gives an analysis and portrait of phonological characteristics of original Hanoi an accent, based on experimental findings and acoustic senses of 5 elements of Vietnamese syllables, which refer to tone, Syllable-initial, prevocalic, nuclear and syllable-final, in comparison with typical features of other areas of Hanoi in particular and other regions in general. The findings are specified as follow:

- Tones: Original Hanoian accent has a system of 6 tones, which distinguish each other in pitch and length. Tones 1 is the longest while tone 4 is the shortest. There exists a wide variety of tone trait. Tones' pitches are closer its comes the further tones' pitches different from each other.

- Syllable-initial: Hanoian has a system of no more than 19 consonants. Those consonants like /ʈ, ş, ʐ/ tend to be converted into /c, s, z/, which means that Hanoian syllable-initial system is missing retroflex consonants.

- Prevocalic: in the manner of universal Vietnamese, prevocalic phonemic system of original Hanoian accent is created by virtue of the opposition between two phonemes, one of which is of positive content - /-w-/, and the other is of null content. The combination of /-w-/ and nuclears generates the rhyme, which is considered the most unique and comprehensive trait character of original Hanoian accent (in other words, Old Quarter Hanoian accent).

- Main - vowels: Hanoi's main-vowels system consists of 16 vowels. Our findings point out the difference between male voice and female voice: average pitch of men's formants is normally lower than that of women's. Virtually, formants' pitches are similar at the start-up of vowels, but obviously diverse at the vowel's end. Particularly in female voice, /i/ starts at the lowest formant level, but ends at a rather higher level than other vowels.

- Syllable-final: Hanoian's syllable-final system includes 8 phonemes. Among syllable-final, there exists the opposition regarding length between nasal consonants such as /m, n, ŋ/ and occlusive sounds /p, t, k/. A syllable with shorter vowel will have a longer ending consonant, and vice versa.

11. Practical applicability, if any:

12. Further research directions, if any:

13. Thesis-related publications: