The Ambiguity in Distinguishing the Hỏi and Ngã Tones among Native Speakers and Foreign Learners of Vietnamese

Abstract

This paper examines the ambiguity in distinguishing between hỏi tone and ngã tone in Southern Vietnamese anong native speakers and foreign learners of Vietnamese as a second language (L2). We combine two approaches: production and perception. Regarding production, the analysis of F0, H1–H2, CPP, and HNR indices shows that ngã tone maintain the falling-breaking-rising characteristics with a higher degree of creaky voice, while hỏi tone tends to have a more stable falling-gliding contour. This difference is stable in both males and females but is more pronounced among females. Regarding perception, statistical analysis of more than 2,600 responses shows that Vietnamese people have the highest accuracy (71.1%), followed by Cambodians (60.3%) and Laotians (52.3%). The results also show that tone type, target word position in the sentence, and mother tongue background have a significant impact on the ability to recognize the hỏi and ngã tones. In contrast, accent and sentence style have less impact on tone. Overall, the study confirms that the distinction between hỏi and ngã tones is a multi-cue contrast, but the clarity of this contrast depends on the combination of contextual factors and the listener's linguistic background. This finding contributes to clarifying the mechanism of perception and production of Vietnamese tones, and has practical significance for teaching Vietnamese as a foreign language.