APICAL VOWEL IN JIXI-HUI CHINESE: AN ARTICULATORY STUDY

Bowei Shao (1) , Rachid Ridouane (1)

1 LPP - LPP - Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie - UMR 7018

In this study, we analyze mid-sagittal and coronal ultrasound data from four subjects in order to investigate the articulatory properties of the apical vowel /z/ in Jixi-Hui Chinese (JHC). We seek to determine whether this unique segment, particularly well studied in Standard Chinese (SC), has articulatory characteristics of a vowel or a fricative consonant. Mid-sagittal ultrasound data show that it displays the same tongue shape as consonant [s] and may have a slightly higher tongue tip, which could explain the presence of abundant frication noise. The raising of the tongue dorsum, already observed in SC, varies in JHC across speakers. Coronal ultrasound data show that the tongue is medial-grooved and has an increased grooving corresponding to the decreased frication noise and the appearance of clear formant structure near its offset. These findings are discussed in light of the behavior of this segment within the phonological system of JHC.

Mots clés: apical vowels; ultrasound; Jixi-Hui Chinese; syllabic consonant

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Linguistique

Bowei Shao, Rachid Ridouane. APICAL VOWEL IN JIXI-HUI CHINESE: AN ARTICULATORY STUDY. ICPhS2019, Aug 2019, Melbourne, Australia. ⟨halshs-03153054⟩