Objective To investigate the features of native Hakka speakers' ability to identify Cantonese tones.Methods Twenty native Cantonese speakers and 12 native Hakka speakers were given the Hongkong Cantonese tone identification test.Results Neither group was troubled by similar vowel and consonant sounds.The Cantonese group could identify all tones well except distinguishing tones 5 and 2 (89％) and tones 4 and 6 (89％).The Hakkas had the most difficulty distinguishing tones 3 and 6 (70.0％),but significant differences were observed between the two groups in the identification of tones 2 and 5 and 2 and 4.Conclusion A native Hakka speaker's ability to identify Cantonese tones may be closely related to the tone's pitch,tonal patterns as well as the Hakka tone system.
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