Effects of language attrition on tonal changes

Abstract

The study examines effects of language attrition and phonetic similarity on sound change of low-level tone in Hai-lu Hakka. The low-level category has been gradually lost and replaced by a low-falling variant. A decline of use frequency triggers language attrition, and is hypothesized as a crucial cause of the tonal change. A production task was conducted on three groups of Hakka speakers, daily users, weekly users, and monthly users, in terms of use frequency. The results show that low-level tone was the least accurate category and was largely pronounced as low-falling tone across the participant groups, and there is a significant difference between non-attrition speakers, daily users, and attrition speakers, weekly and monthly users. The findings suggest that language attrition is responsible for sound change of low level tone in Hakka, and phonetic similarity of pitch height determines how the tone changes.