Phonetic characteristics of Shanxi Mandarin

The phonic deviations of Shanxi Mandarin were investigated using selected speech materials from four dialectal regions of Changzhi,Linfen,Lvliang,and Taiyuan,in terms of their initials,finals and tones.Formant pattern charts are given for the initials and finals,with curve graphs of the tones.The Shanxi Mandarin is evaluated by analyzing the phonetic differences between standard Mandarin and Shanxi Mandarin to provide useful acoustic parameters for training of Mandarin Chinese and Mandarin proficiency tests.