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The articulatory properties of apical vowels in Hefei Mandarin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 June 2023

Huifang Kong ,
Shengyi Wu Open the ORCID record for Shengyi Wu [Opens in a new window] ,
Mingxing Li Open the ORCID record for Mingxing Li [Opens in a new window]  and
Xiangrong Shen
Huifang Kong
Affiliation:
Institute of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, School of Foreign Languages, Anhui Jianzhu University 1970620409@qq.com
Shengyi Wu*
Affiliation:
Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Shaoxing University wushengyi88@gmail.com
Mingxing Li
Affiliation:
Department of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Baptist University mingxingli@hkbu.edu.hk
Xiangrong Shen
Affiliation:
Key Innovation Group of Digital Humanities Resource and Research, Shanghai Normal University sxr@shnu.edu.cn
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: Shengyi Wu, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Shaoxing University. Email: wushengyi88@gmail.com
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Abstract

Apical vowels are widely observed across Chinese dialects, such as the rime of [sɹ̩55] ‘think’ in Mandarin Chinese, which is a syllabic approximant homorganic to its preceding sibilant. The apical vowels in Hefei Mandarin differ from those in Mandarin Chinese and most other languages in three aspects: (i) there are three phonetic apical vowels [ɹ̩], [ɹ̩ʷ], and [ɻ̩] while others usually have one or two, (ii) the alveolar apical [ɹ̩] appears after both homorganic and non-homorganic consonants, e.g. [sɹ̩] vs. [pɹ̩], and (iii) there is a phonological contrast between an unrounded apical [ɹ̩] and a rounded apical [ɹ̩ʷ], e.g. [sɹ̩] vs. [sɹ̩ʷ]. The articulatory properties of the three apical vowels were examined in this study using ultrasound techniques and the results revealed that: (i) the commonalities of tongue gestures for the apical vowels include a retracted tongue root, a lowered tongue dorsum or blade, or both, together with a coronal constriction implemented with the blade and/or the tip; (ii) lip gestures are involved in distinguishing the three apical segments; (iii) the three segments each have its distinct articulatory gestures within a speaker that cannot be simply attributed to the influence from their preceding consonants, with [ɹ̩] and [ɹ̩ʷ] involving a grooving in the front part of the tongue and [ɻ̩] involving a retraction of tongue body in the back region of the vocal tract; (iv) the articulatory gesture of [ɹ̩] after a homorganic consonant, e.g. in [sɹ̩], is similar to that after a non-homorganic consonant, e.g. in [pɹ̩], suggesting an independent articulatory target for this segment.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the International Phonetic Association , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , April 2024 , pp. 165 - 188
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The International Phonetic Association

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