Abstract:

More than 40% of the monosyllables in standard Chinese (SC) have a vowel followed by a nasal coda. The goal of this study is to determine by acoustic analysis how the vocalic portion is affected by the nasal context due to coarticulation in SC disyllabic words. Simple vowels /i--a--e/ in two types of syllables were examined: (1) with a nasal coda /n--ng/ followed by a syllable beginning with a stop or vowel, and (2) without a nasal coda followed by a syllable beginning with a stop or /n/. Spectral measurements were made every 10 ms in the vowel and the nasal consonant. The maximum first difference for the first four formant amplitudes was used to detect the vowel--nasal consonant boundary. The formant trajectories in the vowel over time were used as indicators for the place of the nasal coda formed with or without oral closure. Contours of adjusted A1--P0 and A1-P1 (amplitude differences between the first formant and nasal peaks) over time showed that vowels with nasal coda are more nasalized than vowels in a non-nasal context or in an intersyllabic nasal context. [Work supported by MIT International Science and Technology Initiative.]