Possible Influence of Linguistic Musical Background on Perceptual Pitch-Matching Tasks: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Linguistic background has been identified as important in the perception of pitch, particularly between tonal versus nontonal languages. In addition, a link between native language and the perception of musical pitch has also been established. This pilot study examined the perception of pitch between listeners from tonal and nontonal linguistic cultures where two different styles of music originate. Listeners were 10 individuals born in China who ranged in age from 25 to 37 years and had spent on the average 30 mo. in the USA and 10 individuals, born on the Indian subcontinent, who ranged in age from 22 to 31 years, and had spent an average of 13 mo. in the USA. Listeners from both groups participated in two conditions. One condition involved listening to a selection of music characteristic of the individual's culture (China, pentatonic scale; Indian subcontinent, microtones), and one condition involved no music. All listeners within each condition participated in two voice pitch-matching tasks. One task involved matching the lowest and highest pitch of tape-recorded voices to a note on an electronic keyboard. Another task involved matching the voice pitch of tape-recorded orally read words to a note on the keyboard. There were no differences between the two linguistic groups. Methodological limitations preclude generalization but provide the basis for further research.