Language-specific prosodic structural modulation of coarticulatory vowel nasalization in #NV and CVN# in Mandarin Chinese

Abstract

This study investigates prominence and boundary effects on acoustic realization on N-duration and Vnasalization in Mandarin Chinese. In both #NV and VN#, prominence was found to elongate N-related duration (enhancing N’s nasality), while V tended to resist coarticulatory influence from N (enhancing V’s orality). In phrase-initial position (#NV), boundary strength induced a shortening of N in line with CV contrast enhancement (C being less sonorant hence more consonant-like), while V was nasalized categorically regardless of boundary strength, different from a general coarticulatory pattern. In phrase-final position (CVN#), while there was no clear-cut acoustic distinction between V and N, the nasalized portion showed preboundary lengthening. Crucially, the degree of V-nasalization was not larger phrase-finally, deviating from a general increase in V-nasalization found in other languages in which the nasal-oral contrast in the coda is enhanced phrasefinally. The results are discussed in terms of distributional restrictions in Mandarin Chinese which allows only nasals in the coda which are lenited with no oral counterparts.