Lingual gestures of the oral-nasal vowel contrast in Chaoshan Chinese

Abstract

This study investigates whether nasal vowels of Chaoshan Chinese are more than oral vowels with nasality. Ultrasound data from six speakers reveal that the majority show tongue body raising and tongue root advancement for [ɛ̃] and [ã], maintaining velum lowering through palatoglossal connection and preventing lingual-velar contact. Two speakers use a higher tongue position for low vowels, enhancing acoustic effects of nasality via F1-lowering. Three speakers produce /ĩ/ with a higher tongue position, maintaining [+high] cues by counteracting F1-raising of nasality. These results demonstrate that lingual adjustments made during nasal vowel production are optional, speaker-specific, and vowel-specific.