Synchronic Variation and Diachronic Evolution of Tone Patterns in Kunming Dialect

An acoustic experiment was conducted to analyze the tonal patterns of single characters in the Kunming dialect. The experimental results show that the Kunming dialect has a semi-high flat tone for the first tone, a low descending tone for the second tone, a high descending tone for the third tone, and a low tone for the fourth tone. The first and third tones are both high, while the second and fourth are both low tones, as opposed to the tonal patterns of "flat" and "low". The newer Kunming dialects show variation. The first tone starts and ends at a higher level, the third tone's bent section disappears, and the fourth tone starts and ends at a lower level, with a shorter tone duration. The variation in tone pattern starts in the middle-aged group in the old urban, and the degree of variation is female > male, old urban > old suburban, and the youth and middle-aged group > senior group, respectively. The female tone pattern has more similar vocal tone characteristics to those in the middle-aged and youth groups.