The Acoustic Research Of Intra-Syllable Coarticulation In Mandarin

Coarticulation is a new phenomenon different from the traditional phonetics gradually discovered in the1960s, meaning that the segment is not static, separate and will be influenced by the segment nearby. Since then, coarticulation has become a hot and difficult point of the speech research.The research, by combing the domestic and international phenomenon of coarticulation research, found that there were various coarticulation theories abroad, but China with a late start developed in the last20-30years. Intra-syllable coarticulation researches in Mandarin were far less than inter-syllable coarticulation researches, lack of systematicness and advanced parameters, which can’t deeply reveal the characteristics of intra-syllable coarticulation in Mandarin. Therefore, the research, with a variety of acoustic parameters, firstly studied intra-syllable coarticulation in Mandarin systematically.The main results of the research were as follows:The characteristics of VV, VVV coarticulation:(1) There were two types of V1to V2transition in diphthong:partial transition and overall transition. The slop of VV formant transition depended on the one hand, the V1, V2, of which the jaw, tongue position; the other hand, depended on the motion of V1to V2transition: mandibular motion direction, the lip round or not and their effects on the tongue. The research divided V1V2V3into vvvf and vvvb through the maximum value of F1, and found that only overall transition existed in vvvf and vvvb, which was the inevitable request for the VVV’s fast and flexible transition. The slops of vvvf and vvvb’s formant transition were significantly different from those of VV’s and displayed the same trends. kF1tended to become smaller and kF2tended to become larger.The characteristics of CV coarticulation:(1) the locus slope of/k/、/x/was greater than1, affected mostly by the flowing vowel; the locus slope of/p/、/f/was greater than0.8, affected dramatically by the flowing vowel; the locus slope of/t/、/l/、/ts/was greater than0.5, affectedly partially by the flowing vowel; the locus slope of /tc/、/c/、/s/was greater than0.4and less than0.5, reflecting strong coarticulation resistance; the locus slope of/ts/、/s/was less than0.4. reflecting strongest coarticulation resistance.(2) No matter stops, fricative, or affricative, there exited significantly differences between different places of articulation. And there also exited significantly differences between stops, fricatives, affricatives and laterals.(3) The coarticulation ratio Of consonants, highly related to locus slops, was demonstrated as an efficient parameter, which can reflect the influence between consonants and vowels.(4) The coarticulation ratio Of vowels=SD (F2onset)/SD (F2target), from the largest to smallest:/u/>/a/>/(?)/>/i/./u/was mostly affected by preceding consonants;/a/was largely affected by preceding consonants;/(?)/was less affected than/a/;/i/is almost free from the affection of consonants, with a strong coarticulation resistance.The characteristics of VC、NV、NVC coarticulation:(1) The nasalization of/n-/to/-v/is greater than that of/m-/to/-v/.(2) The nasalization of/-n/to/v-/is greater than that of/-(?)/to/v-/.(3) For/i/, the carryover effects of/n-/was stronger than the anticipatory effects of/-n/;for/a,(?)/, the carryover effects of/n-/was the same with the anticipatory effects of/-n/.(4) when combing/n-/with/-n/or/-(?)/, the nasalization of/a,(?)/was greater than that of NV、VC; the nasalization of/i/was greater than that of VC, but the same with NV.(5) The nasality of vowel depended on both the height and the back or forth of the tongue;(6) when nasals around, the nasalization of/v/firstly depended on the height, then on the the back or forth of the tongue.