Interaction between lexical tone and labial movement in Cantonese bilabial plosive production

Abstract

The present study investigated the possible laryngeal-articulatory interaction by examining the direct kinematic data of Cantonese bilabial plosive produced at different lexical tones. Aspirated and unaspirated bilabial plosives /ph/ and /p/ produced at six lexical tones (T1 -T6) by three native adult male speakers of Cantonese were studied to reveal the effect of tone on articulatory gestures. By using electromagnetic articulography (EMA), movement of the jaw, upper lip and lower lip was measured. The kinematic data revealed that high level tone (T1) was associate with a considerably faster lip movement than low level tone (T6) in terms of lip opening velocity (LOV) and time to peak velocity of lip opening (TPV). This finding was in line with results previously reported on Mandarin (Hoole & Hu, 2004). The high subglottal pressure required by high level tone production can be used to explain the faster lip movement during bilabial separation. However, unaspirated plosives of a lower intraoral pressure exhibited faster lip movements (as indicated by LOV, lip peak velocity and TPV values) during lip opening than aspirated plosives. Further investigations in aerodynamics and laryngeal activities are suggested in order to draw a more concrete conclusion for aspiration effect.