README.md

Supplementary Data for “Tones of Beijing dialect since 1900 and their evolution: Evidence from early recordings”

This repository provides raw data of citation tones of Beijing dialect extracted from recordings and experimental results since 1900.

Data Sources

Filename of extracted data is written after each source.

• Early recordings
  • Azoulay, Léon. 1900. Exposition Universelle de Paris, 1900. Paris: Société d’Anthropologie de Paris.
    Digitized by the Centre de Recherche en Ethnomusicologie
    1900A Azoulay.csv (from Items Nos. 76 and 77)
    1900B Azoulay.csv (from Item No. 78)
  • Wang, Pu (王璞). 1920. Zhonghua Guoyin liushengjipian 中華國音留聲機片 [Chinese National Phonetic record]. Shanghai: Zhonghua Book Company.
    Digitized by the National Taiwan University Library
    1920 Wang.csv (from Lesson 6)
  • Chao, Yuen Ren (趙元任). 1922a. Guoyu liushengpian 國語留聲片 [National Language record]. Shanghai: The Commercial Press.
    Digitized by the National Taiwan University Library
    Digitized by the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library (not used in this study due to its lower quality)
    1922a Chao.csv (from Lesson 7)
  • Shu, Chien Chun. 1928. Chinese course. London: Linguaphone Institute.
    Digitized by Beijing Classics and Old Records Digital Publishing Project
    Digitized by the Great 78 Project (not used in this study due to its similar quality to the former)
    1928 Shu.csv (from Lesson 1 and Chinese Sounds 1)
  • Pai, Ti-chou (白滌洲). 1933. Biaozhun Guoyin 標準國音 [Standard National Pronunciation]. Shanghai: Zhonghua Book Company.
    Digitized by the National Taiwan University Library
    1933 Pai.csv (from Side 5)
• Early experiments
  • Karlgren, Bernhard. 1915. Études sur la phonologie chinoise, vol. 1, 253–259. Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söner.
    Brittle Books | Internet Archive
    1915 Karlgren.csv
  • Chao, Yuen Ren (趙元任). 1922b. Zhongguo yanyu zidiao di shiyan yanjiufa 中國言語字調底實驗硏究法 [The methods for investigation of the intonation of Chinese language]. Kexue 科學 7(9), 871–882.
    1922b Chao.csv
  • Liu, Fu. 1925. Étude expérimentale sur les tons du chinois. Paris: Les Belles-Lettres.
    Gallica
    1925 Liu.csv (from Planche XI)
  • Obata, Jûichi (小幡重一) & Tesima, Takehiko (豊島武彦). 1934. Shina-go no butsuri onseigakuteki kenkyū: Shisei no seishitsu 支那語の物理音聲學的研究：四聲の性質 [Physicophonetic study of Chinese language: Properties of four tones]. Nippon Sugaku-Buturigakkwaishi 日本数学物理学会誌 8(1). 1–10.
    DOI: 10.11429/subutsukaishi1927.8.1
    1934 Obata & Tesima.csv (from speaker Bao Xiangyin 包象寅 in Figures 2a and 2e)
  • Pai, Ti-chou (白滌洲). 1934. Beijingyu shengdiao ji bianhua 北京語聲調及變化 [Tones and changes of Beijing dialect]. (Manuscript.)
    Partially published in
    Luo, Changpei (羅常培) & Wang, Jun (王均). 1957. Putong yuyinxue gangyao 普通語音學綱要 [Outline of general phonetics], 125–127. Beijing: Science Press.
    1934 Pai.csv
• Modern data
  • Lin, Tao (林焘) & Zhou, Yimin (周一民) & Cai, Wenlan (蔡文兰). 1998. Beijinghua yindang 北京话音档 [Phonetic archive of Beijing dialect] (Xiandai Hanyu Fangyan Yinku 现代汉语方言音库 [Phonetic Database of Modern Chinese Dialects] 1). Shanghai: Shanghai Education Publishing House.
    We directly cite extracted data (mean and standard deviation) from
    Shi, Shaowei (石少伟). 2007. Xiandai Hanyu Fangyan Yinku danzidiao shiyan yanjiu 《现代汉语方言音库》单字调实验研究 [Experimental study on monosyllabic tones in Phonetic Database of Modern Chinese Dialects]. Nanjing: Nanjing Normal University. (Master’s thesis.)
    DOI: 10.7666/d.y1116983
    1998 Lin et al..csv
  • Sanders, Robert & Shi, Feng (石锋) (eds.). 2003. Hanyu Yuyin Shujuku 汉语语音数据库 [Chinese Phonetic Database].
    2003 Beijing.csv (from Speakers 39, 41, 42, and 45)

Data Structure

Each .csv file contains the following fields:

• Item: This field has values when samples are from different sections (items/chapters/speakers) of the source
• Character: Chinese character corresponding to each syllable (if applicable)
• Pinyin: Pinyin (without tone mark) of each syllable (if applicable). Note that some readings differ from today’s standard Putonghua
• Tone: Tone number of each syllable
• Duration: Duration (in ms, except Chao 1922b) of each syllable
• P1 to P30: Fundamental frequencies (in Hz) of 30 evenly distributed measurement points over the duration of each syllable

Notes

• Karlgren (1915) used original units. They have been converted into general units (ms and Hz).
• Chao (1922b) and Pai (1934) used semitones as the unit of pitch. For consistency, their data have been converted to Hz based on the standard pitch A = 435 Hz at the time.
• Chao (1922b) did not include absolute duration. Duration values in 1922a Chao.csv represent the duration ratio of each tone to T2.
• In each syllable in Liu (1925), 4 or more points at the start and 6 or more points at the end should be discarded as they are superfluous pitch bends rather than parts of the actual pitch contour. Liu (1925: 76–78) also disregarded these bends. The durations should also be reduced by one third or more.
• Data of Lin et al. (1998) are already averaged from multiple syllables for each tone, and have only 10 points of fundamental frequency per tone.
• In Beijing 2003 samples, half of Tone 3 syllables are with creak and a noticeable pitch contour disconnect in the middle. Such samples are marked as 3C in Tone for reference.