Uvular approximation as an articulatory vowel feature

HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2015

This paper aims at following the concept of vowel space across history. It shows that even with very poor experimental means, researchers from the 17 th century started to organize the vowel systems along perceptual dimensions, either articulatory, by means of proprioceptive introspection, or auditory. With the development of experimental devices, and the increasing knowledge in acoustic and articulatory theories in the 19 th century, it is shown how the relationship between the two dimensions tended to tighten. At the mid 20 th century, the link between articulatory parameters such as jaw opening, position of the constriction of the tongue, or lip rounding, and the acoustical values of formants was clear. At this period, with the increasing amount of phonological descriptions of the languages of the world, and the power of the computer database analysis allowing extracting universal tendencies, the question of how the vowel systems are organized arose. The paper discusses this important question, focusing on two points: (1) how the auditory constraints shape the positioning of a specific set of vowel within the acoustic space, and (2) how the articulatory constraints shape the maximal extension of the vowel systems, the so-called maximal vowel space (MVS). In the past centuries, the vowel space representation evolved along two main dimensions: articulatory and auditory. One of the first articulatory representations of vowels was proposed by Robinson in 1617. By capturing the position of his tongue positions during vowel production, he proposed to categorize the vowels along the anterior-posterior position of the tongue (see for details). More than a hundred years later, Hellwag proposed in turn, one of the first triangle representations of the German vowel space with its degrees and its order relations ([2: §57], see fig. ). Now, the auditory perception seemed to be of importance in this description. As quoted by Nearey: « Hellwag is partly interested in anatomical descriptions of speech production. However, his introduction of the triangle seems to be motivated primarily by concern for some type of auditory, rather than articulatory relationship» ([3: 41]). Indeed, Hellwag was much influenced by Reyher's 1679 works on "tone heights", defined from whispered vowels and that relied on the timbre of the vowels independently of any fundamental frequency (see ). At the same period, the German physicist Chladni ([4]) proposed another representation of the 10 vowels, that he claimed to be the whole set of vowels, sorted into 3 series according to articulatory considerations 1 ([4: § 52], see fig. ). From the vowel /a/, he derived a 1 st branch with "open outside and slowly narrowing inside" (/a ɔ o u/), a 2 nd branch with an

Journal of Phonetics, 2008

This study aims to understand the phonological vowel inventory and the phonetic implementation of vowel categories in Shanghai Chinese by examining the acoustic realization of two complementary sets of vowels in the language, one set appearing in open syllables (OSVs) and the other in closed syllables with a glottal coda (CSVs). Two factors-consonant onset and prominence level-were controlled. Results confirmed that OSVs were longer than CSVs (by an average factor of 1.5) and were realized with a more expanded acoustic vowel space. Detailed analyses of the vowel formant data suggested that CSVs cannot be the reduced realization of OSVs. Instead, the seemingly spectral reduction of CSVs is an inherent feature of the vowel's phonetic implementation, in contrast to the more static spectral patterns of the OSVs. Such a spectral change of CSVs is proposed to be a speaker-controlled process, the purpose of which is to maximally differentiate CSVs from OSVs, the two sub-systems of the vowels of the language. r

2013

This dissertation investigates the place of articulation of allegedly 'placeless' consonants of Japanese-the moraic nasal /N/ and the glottal fricative /h/. In the discipline of phonology, these two consonants have typically been analyzed as having no place features of their own, on the grounds that their place features are predictable from the adjacent segments, that they often appear as outputs of debuccalization, and that they show high articulatory variability. While some researchers believe that certain segments are placeless both phonologically and phonetically, it has not been examined how these Japanese consonants appear in the surface phonetics. The current research instrumentally tests the hypothesis that they have articulatory targets, based on qualitative and quantitative examination of data produced by native speakers of Japanese. Such a study is important in order to fill the scientific gap between the phonological theories and phonetic approaches to the study of sounds. Ultrasound experiments were conducted on six native speakers of Tokyo Japanese, and the tongue movement was analyzed. The tracing of the overall tongue configurations on the ultrasound imaging was done by EdgeTrak (Stone 2005). The data for placeless segments were compared to those for the adjacent vowels, in terms of tongue shape, constriction degree and constriction location. The results involve three significant points: First, /N/ shows a significant dorsum raising for all speakers, while /h/ shows a pharyngeal constriction for 5 out of 6 speakers. Second, the constriction location is different across speakers: The location of /N/ ranges from post-alveolar to uvular, and the location of /h/ is either uvular or pharyngeal. Third, /N/ and /h/ had no more variability than /k/, which is widely assumed to be a velar-specified segment. This research empirically confirms that these two segments are articulatorily stable within a speaker but variable across speakers. This contradicts long-standing views about the segments in question. The individual variability may also lend support for the phonologization of different phonetic interpretations. Finally, the place-features of these same segments could be different across languages, and further instrumental studies of these sounds are encouraged.

Proceedings of Interspeech 2025, 2025

This study examines the acoustic and articulatory characteristics of apical vowels in Southwestern Mandarin (SWM) using electromagnetic articulography (EMA). Data were collected from seven speakers in their twenties, focusing apical vowels, the high vowel [i], and their er-suffixed forms. Two distinct patterns emerged: Type A speakers demonstrated differential tongue configurations for apical vowels (si with dental/alveolar position, shi with alveolo-palatal position), while Type B speakers showed similar configurations for both vowels. Type A findings align with previous research on Standard Chinese, confirming that apical vowels share place features with preceding sibilants and showing higher F2 values for shi. However, Type B revealed an intriguing articulatoryacoustic mismatch: despite showing significant differences in horizontal Tongue Tip and Tongue Body positions, these vowels exhibited no significant formant differences. This unexpected pattern suggests a more complex relationship between articulatory configuration and acoustic output in apical vowel production than previously documented.

2004

The articulation of uvular consonants is studied with particular reference to quantal aspects of speech production. Data from X­ray motion films are presented. Two speakers of Southern Swedish give examples of [{], and one speaker of West Greenlandic Inuit gives examples of [{] and [q]. The traditional view that uvular consonants are produced by articulating the dorsum against the uvula ought not to work, owing to the presence of free air passages either side of the uvula. The formant transitions to vowels adjacent to these consonants suggest instead that the place of articulation is in the upper pharynx, at the same place as is constricted for [o]­like vowels. The X­ray films confirm that these three subjects constricted the upper pharynx for these consonants.

2018

The present study investigates the C-V and V-C coarticulations in Cantonese and Taiwanese CVC monosyllables, where C = plosives [p t k] and V = vowels [i a u]. EMA AG500 and NDI Wave were used to record the articulatory actions of the tongue during the test syllables uttered by four male speakers, two Cantonese and two Taiwanese. Results show that the between-segment co-articulation strength (CS), which is indicated in the Euclidean distance of the tongue positions at the C-V and V-C transitions, varies with the plosive type, vowel type, and position of the plosive in the syllables. For both Cantonese and Taiwanese, the general order of decreasing CS is (i) when C = [p] > C = [k] > C = [t] and (ii) when V = [i] > V = [u] > V = [a]. A major difference between the two languages is a stronger CS between V and-C than between C-and V in Cantonese, but a stronger CS between C-and V than between V and-C in Taiwanese. The articulatory data reveal that despite the similarity in syllable structure between Cantonese and Taiwanese, the latent articulatory relationship between consonant and vowel in a syllable differ between the two languages.

1997

Proceedings of Interspeech 2021, 2021

This paper is a comparative study of the articulation of the "apical vowels" in three Mandarin dialects: Beijing Mandarin (BJM), Northeastern Mandarin (NEM), and Southwestern Mandarin (SWM), using co-registered EMA and ultrasound. Data from 5 BJM speakers, 5 NEM speakers and 4 SWM speakers in their twenties were analyzed and discussed. Our recording materials include the dental and retroflex apical vowels, and their er-suffixed forms. Results suggest that distinct lingual configurations are found among the three dialects of Mandarin, even though these apical vowels are not perceptually distinguishable. Specifically, the dental apical vowel [ɿ] has a grooved tongue shape in BJM, a retracted tongue dorsum in NEM, and a relatively flat tongue shape in SWM. The retroflex apical vowel [ʅ] has a domed tongue shape as well as a bunched tongue body in NEM, a slightly domed tongue posture in SWM, and, articulatorily speaking, very similar to the er-suffix in BJM. In sum, we observed yet another instance of the articulatory-acoustic mismatch.

2007

Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2019

This study provides a formant analysis of the ten monophthongal vowels /i, y, e, ø, ɛ, ɯ, u, ɤ, o, ɑ/, of Northern Lisu, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken around the borders of China, Myanmar and India. Word-list recordings were made of 8 native speakers from Yunnan province in China (4 female and 4 male). Results show differences in vowel realization between the male and female speakers, with female speakers and not male speakers merging the contrast between /e/ and /ø/. However, both sets of speakers show evidence of merger between /u/ and /y/, and /ɯ/ and /ɤ/. This study provides evidence for the instability of the secondary cardinal vowels in a complex monophthongal vowel space.