An Experimental Study On The Acoustic Tone Of Phoenix Miao Language

The acoustical features of prenasalized consonants derives from its segmentalcomplexity. The present study aims at exploring the acoustical characteristics ofprenasalized obstruents in Fenghuang Miao in the perspective of duration, voicing and thefundamental frequency. First, on duration, we want to know the differences betweenprenasalized consonants and nasal consonants, obstruents and NC clusters, and thedifference of prenasalized obstruents in different positions(word initial,word medial); Then,the voicing status of the obstruent portion in prenasalized obstruents are examined; Finally,we will discover if the prenasalized obstruents have any effect on the F0of the vowel next toit. Several conclusions can be made from the present study:First, there is a durational difference between prenasalized obstruents and nasals,obstruents and NC clusters in word medial position. The durational pattern of the foursegment types is: NC> N#C> C> N, the result shows that there is a significant effect ofconsonant types on the duration(F(3，162)=32.75，P<.001). There is also a duration varianceof the prenasalized obstruents in different word position: in word initial, there’s nosignificant difference between the duration of NC and N#C, but the significant effect doesexists in word medial（P<.05）,we contend that the prenasalized obstruents in word medialposition may be a NC cluster rather than a typical prenasalized obstruent.Second, there are two kinds of prenasalized obstruents in Fenghuang Miao:one is voicedand unaspirated, the other is unvoiced but aspirated. This judegement is based on thevoicing portion of the two kinds of prenasalized obstruents, the result shows that the voicingof the post-nasal obstruents may be universal. We hold the point that, the combination effectfrom the velar movement of nasal portion and the aspiration status of the obstruent portionis the reason why the voicing status of the obsturent is varied.Third, a lowering effect of unaspirated voiced prenasalized obstruents on the F0of nextvowel has been detected (comparing to its aspirated voiceless prenasalized obstruentscounterparts). The aspiration of NCH will raise the F0, while the voicing of NC lower it. Inaddition, comparing to obstruents, the average F0of the vowel after prenasalized consonantsis lower（NCH <CH, NC <C）. The whole pattern of the vowel F0after different segementtypes is CH> NCH> C> NC.