설첨모음 vs 성절자음

Abstract

This article attempts to determine if the apical vowels of Modern Mandarin are not vowels but consonants that cause the preceeding consonants to be syllabic consonants. Based upon phonetic experiments and phonological analyses, this article argues against Duanmu San and Lin Yen-Hwei among many others and concludes that they can be still considered to be apical vowels. The reasons include the followings:a. [ɿ] and [ʅ] are phonetically similar to the high front vowel [i]. b. [ɿ] and [ʅ] can be considered as different phonemes as is [i]. c. Affricates and fricatives can be difficult to be syllabic consonants due to their low sonority. d. Supposing syllabic consonants can make the phonological system of Modern Mandarin more complicated. e. [ɿ] can be changed to other vowels in central and southern dialects. [ɿ]and [ʅ] can combine with a variety of consonants in Shanxi dialects in addition to dental affricates and fricatives. These imply that the apical vowels function as one of any other vowels in Mandarin,f. [ɿ] and [ʅ] were derived from Middle Chinese vowel [i].