A spectral analysis of the apical vowel in Yongding Hakka

Abstract

The so-called apical vowels are wide-spread in Chinese dialects. A main difference between apical and dorsal vowels is in the fact that the apical vowels are syllabic approximants. This study investigates the spectral characteristics of the plain apical vowel in Yongding Hakka spoken in the southwest of Fujian Province in southeastern China. Results show (i) the F-pattern of the plain apical vowel of Yongding Hakka differs from those of the dorsal vowels, in that despite the linguo-palatal constriction during the plain apical vowel is made in the more anterior part of the mouth cavity than during the vowel /i/, the plain apical vowel has a lower F2; (ii) the F-patterns of the plain apical vowels of Yongding Hakka and other Chinese dialects are similar; (iii) the F-pattern of the rounded apical vowel of Ningbo dialect is similar to that of the plain apical vowels of other Chinese dialects; and (iv) the retroflex apical vowel of Beijing Mandarin has a marked low F3 compared to the F3 for other apical vowels. This study offers preliminary spectral data for a large-scale investigation of the acoustic and perceptual characteristics of the apical vowels of different types of Chinese dialects.