Abstract: In this experiment the effects of a vowel's duration and of a vowel's quality on the perception of Chinese tones were investigated by using as stimuli the first-second tone and the second-third tone continua carried by the vowels /i/ and /ao/ of durations ranging from 100ms to 500ms, and by using as index the first and the second tone response curves and the average response percents. The main results are: (1) a vowel's duration significantly affects tone perception; (2) the data concerning the firstsecond tone continua show that a vowel's quality plays no role in tone perception, while the results concerning the second-third tone continua show that tone perception is remarkedly affected by a vowel's quality. The different outcomes of the two groups of continua were disc- ussed and compared with the results from relevant studies.

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