# A Preliminary Study of Model-Generated Speech
## 1 Introduction
### The Acquisition of Vowels, Consonants, and Tones by Children in Terms of Their Order of Emergence  
Concerning the development and acquisition of languages by children, several different studies have been undertaken in relation to the Sino-Tibetan language family, including Mandarin Chinese, Taiwan Southern Min (TSM), and Cantonese. Consonant, vowel, and tone acquisition have been discussed based on different Sino-Tibetan languages. In consonant acquisition, with regards to the manner of articulation (MOA), stops have been found to be acquired earlier than fricatives and following affricates [11; 12] for Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, [13], for TSM, [14], and for Cantonese). As for the place of articulation (POA), it has been found that consonants articulated in the anterior part of the mouth are usually acquired earlier than consonants in the posterior part of the mouth [15]. This is supported by [11; 12] for Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan and [13] for TSM. However, ref. [14] assert that coronals are acquired earlier than labials in Cantonese. As for voiced features, voiced consonants are usually acquired earlier in English [16], TSM [13], and Cantonese [14], compared to Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan [11; 12]. As for aspirated features, unaspirated consonants are acquired first, followed by their aspirated counterparts in Taiwan Mandarin Chinese [11; 12], in TSM, [13], and in Cantonese, [14]. Overall, the order of consonant acquisition in Taiwan Mandarin Chinese, TSM, and Cantonese pretty consistently goes from unmarked to marked features according to [PERSON]'s definition. In vowel acquisition, most studies have demonstrated that children acquire vowels earlier than consonants. Regarding the nature of the vowels, \([\mathrm{a}]\) seems to be acquired first, then \([\mathrm{i}]\) and \([\mathrm{u}]\), followed by the mid-vowels and others. In Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, ref. [11] not only demonstrated the same pattern but also reported that the CV structure is dominant at the first stage, followed by CVC, CVV, and the rest of the complex syllabic structures. Moreover, oral vowels are acquired earlier than nasalized vowels, and single vowels are acquired first, compound vowels second, and triple vowels last in TSM [13]. For vowel acquisition by children in Mandarin, [PERSON]'s mature theory, i.e., from unmarked to marked feature acquisition, seems to hold. Finally, the subject of tone acquisition appears to have drawn the most attention from scholars. It has been established that level tones are acquired earlier than contour tones ([11; 12] for Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan; [13] for TSM; [14] for Cantonese). For TSM, [PERSON] (1989) [13] reported that high initial tones (high-level, high-falling, and high-rising) were acquired first, followed by the low-falling tones, and then the mid-level tones. The low, entering tone, _yin-ru_, was acquired last because the high, entering tone, _yang-ru_, merged into the mid-level tone, yielding a total of six tones. In addition, an unchecked tone is acquired earlier than a checked tone. To summarize, the development and acquisition of Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, Taiwan Southern Min (TSM), and Cantonese among children is in line with that proposed by [15]. Regarding acquisition by children, ref. [15] proposed a prototype of'maturational theory', whereby the biological programming in human beings determines the structure of language acquisition. Based on [PERSON]'s hierarchy of development at the word level, each component can be assigned as a subset of binary distinctive features (DFs) underlying the phonemes of the world's languages. The higher the hierarchy where the phoneme is located, the easier/earlier it can be produced by a child. This sequence/order of the emergence of sounds usually indicates a shift from unmarked to marked features, which, due to being harder, are acquired later by children. Maturational theory implies that phones may be acquired in the same order all over the world.