Temporal organization of onglides in standard Chinese and Taiwanese Mandarin: A cross-dialectal study

Abstract

This study examines the temporal organization of prenuclear glide (onglide) gestures within a syllable. Kinematic data were collected from four Standard Chinese (SC) and four Taiwanese Mandarin (TM) speakers using an NDI Wave. Mean relative timing of C/G gestures to a (heterosyllabic) consonantal anchor /p/ were calculated using the lag between achievement of constriction of the C/G and /p/. By comparing a given subject’s mean lags for Cs/Gs with CGs, we calculated the subject’s leftward (C vs. CG) and rightward (G vs. CG) shifts associated with /pj/ and /kw/. Results show that in SC, onglides /j/ and /w/ don’t pattern alike: for /kw/, all SC speakers show both leftward and rightward shifts (i.e. the C-center effect), except for subject S3, who fails to show a leftward shift (due to a different regional accent). For /pj/, only rightward shifts are found for all SC speakers. In contrast, regarding /kw/, only leftward shifts are found for all TM speakers, except for subject S8 (due to a different accent), while for /pj/, all TM speakers show rightward shifts, again, except for subject S8. Our findings thus suggest a cross-dialectal difference in /kw/ and confirm the possibility of the rightward shift in gestural coordination. Implications for the phonological status of onglides in Mandarin Chinese will also be discussed.