Objectives: The present study objectively examined the possible difference in vocal characteristics associated with English and Cantonese produced by proficient Cantonese-English bilingual speakers.
Subjects And Methods: Forty native speakers of Cantonese (20 males and 20 females) who were proficient in Cantonese and English participated in the study. An array of acoustical parameters, including fundamental frequency (F0) values and first spectral peak (FSP), mean spectral energy (MSE), and spectral tilt (ST) extracted from long-term average speech spectra were obtained from connected speech samples produced in Cantonese and English by the bilingual speakers. Acoustical parameters were measured using Praat (P. Boersma & D. Weenink, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and used to objectively describe the voice quality.
Results: Results indicated that female bilingual speakers had significantly higher F0 values in speaking English than Cantonese. Although exhibiting comparable FSP values, the bilingual speakers showed significantly higher MSE and lower ST values when speaking Cantonese compared with English.
Conclusions: The present findings imply that, even with the same phonatory apparatus, language being spoken can have an effect on the speakers' voice quality.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvoice.2011.07.013 | DOI Listing |
J Ethnobiol Ethnomed
January 2025
Institute of Nanfan and Seed Industry, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510220, People's Republic of China.
Background: Traditional ecological knowledge embedded in cultural practices is vital for biodiversity conservation but is increasingly under threat from modernization and globalization. This study investigates the role of Chinese folk ritual music in promoting biodiversity conservation, with a focus on Cantonese Opera and agricultural rituals in the Lingnan region of southern China.
Methods: We employed literature review, qualitative fieldwork, and ethnographic analysis, including interviews with local musicians and community members, to investigate how Cantonese Opera and agricultural rituals contribute to ecological sustainability by integrating cultural narratives with environmental stewardship.
Clin Gerontol
January 2025
Division of Social Gerontology, National Ageing Research Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Objectives: To determine whether culturally adapted dementia prevention animations increased dementia prevention knowledge in ethnically diverse communities.
Methods: A before-and after survey conducted online and in-person between 1 February and 5 June 2022. Participants viewed the animation in Arabic, Hindi, Tamil, Cantonese, Mandarin, Greek, Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese or English.
Age Ageing
January 2025
Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Background: Hearing and cognitive impairments are common amongst older adults, both affecting communication and are not easy to distinguish from each other.
Objective: To preliminarily evaluate the efficacy of the integrated Digit in Noise Test (iDIN) for rapid screening of hearing and cognitive functions in older adults.
Design: This cross-sectional cohort study was conducted at multiple clinical sites.
Mem Cognit
January 2025
Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents, Ministry of Education, and Center for Studies of Psychological Application, School of Psychology, South China Normal University, 55 West Zhongshan Ave, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong, China.
The tip-of-the-pen (TOP) is a phenomenon in which individuals fail to completely retrieve the orthographic information of a known character, and mainly occurs in Mandarin (a non-alphabetic language in which the orthography is largely independent of the phonology). The present study examined whether and how long-term language experience and brief exposure to non-target language affected TOP rates in Mandarin handwriting. In Experiment 1, high and low proficiency Mandarin-English bilinguals completed a Mandarin character dictation task before and after watching a short English movie.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Biol Macromol
January 2025
The National Center for Precision Machining and Safety of Livestock and Poultry Products Joint Engineering Research Center, College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, 510642, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food Quality and Safety, College of Food Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China. Electronic address:
Cantonese sausages are susceptible to oxidative deterioration during storage. Compared with synthetic antioxidants, dihydromyricetin (DMY) is a natural active substance with various functions such as antioxidant and antimicrobial. In this study, edible coating solutions loaded with DMY were prepared based on chitosan (CS) and pullulan (PUL) to prolong the shelf-life of Cantonese sausages.
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