Experimental Study On The Elastic Vowel Of Fuzhou Dialect

Fuzhou dialect is a representative dialect in Houguan dialectal area of the Eastern Min Dialects. It has complete pairs of the lax/tense finals. This paper mainly studies the acoustic manifestation and physiological characteristics of the lax/tense finals in Fuzhou dialect by using acoustic and physiological experiments. Combining with phonology, we reconstruct the finals system of Fuzhou dialect, and discuss how to judge the lax/tense finals.In this experiment, We divided 45 pairs of the lax/tense finals into seven categories.From the vowel system, we obtain the F1 and F2 data of the vowels by Praat software to draw the vowel charts of each vowel. Then we summarize the acoustic spatial distribution of each vowel and contrast the vowel system of the lax/tense finals. It is concluded that the lax finals is lower and more back than the tense finals in Fuzhou dialect. And it is a low chain change from the tense finals to the lax finals. The course caused the high vowels to the low vowels and the simple vowels to the compound vowels. But there are exceptions,such as low vowels "a" can not be lower in the vowel system.We study the dynamic vowels in the lax/tense finals and analyzed the duration of the finals by the formant pattern and duration. The main conclusions are as follows: (1)In addition to the obvious differences in the lax/tense finals of the class C,most of the class A and B can be formulated as the same final,because they are similar.(2) The Tense Finals of the level tone with a voiced consonant in the rhyme with an open ending of the class B and the rhyme with a nasal ending of the class A have a very similar characteristics with the lax finals. (3) The duration of syllabic ending in the lax finals is shorter than that of the Tense finals , which is in the rhyme with an open ending of the class B and the rhyme with a nasal ending of the class A and C. (4) It has true diphthongs in Fuzhou dialect, such as the tense finals [iu] and [ui]. (5) The difference between the lax/tense finals [iu], [ui] are not compound of two or three vowels, but in the Internal length ratio, the lax finals is shorter than the tense finals.According to phonation type,Fuzhou dialect have modal voice,pressed voice and breathy voice. And there is no opposition between the lax/tense finals in phonation type.But in the first 1/3 of the final, OQ(open quotient) of the tense finals was significantly smaller than the lax finals, so the initial stage of the tense voice are more tight.Based on the experimental results, this paper discusses how to judge the lax or tense finals in Fuzhou dialect. It lists the distinctive feature matrix: the main feature is the OQ(open quotient) in the first 1/3 of the final and starting of high or low tones. And the sub-characteristics are that the vowel is lower or more complex, the duration of finals, the duration of syllabic ending.