Abstract

This paper reported a study that acoustically examined the tonal features of Vietnamese language used by the Vietnamese community in Australia. Tones produced by older (n=10) and younger (n=10) Vietnamese Australians residing in Brisbane, Australia, were acoustically examined and compared with those produced by corresponding older (n=10) and younger (n=10) Vietnamese residing in Ho Chi Minh/Can Tho City, Vietnam. The results showed that the main patterns of mispronunciation of tones by the younger Vietnamese in Australia (YVA) include (i) confusing tones which are in the same registers or/and have similar characteristics, (ii) the tendency to pronounce complicated tones as simple tones, and (iii) confusing the diacritics of tones. The results of the frequency of melodic contour of all tones produced by the four groups show significant differences between the YVA group and the other three groups in terms of the frequency and distribution of irregular and common tone contours of each tone, suggesting that the YVA group failed to produce the tones correctly or did not reach the required standard of tone production of contemporary standard Vietnamese. In addition, the results of tone contours showed that the tonal range of the YVA group is narrower than that of the other three groups.