Vowel Nasality and Nasal Excrescence in Shanghai Chinese

Abstract

<p>The nasal vowels of Shanghai Chinese (Shanghainese) have been described using a range of distinct transcriptions and analyses. These differences reflect both present-day interspeaker variations, as well as sound change throughout the past century. Three general classes of transcription can be found, including (i) phonemic nasal vowels which occur in the absence of nasal coda consonants, transcribed as [Ã] or [ã ɒ̃], (ii) nasal vowels followed by a weak [ɲ] or [ŋ], transcribed as [Ãɲ] or [ãŋ], which may show only partial nasalization, and (iii) contextually nasalized vowels followed by [ŋ]. There is insufficient acoustic and articulatory data to decide between these conflicting accounts, however. This study examines the acoustic and articulatory configuration of the Shanghainese nasal vowels, with the aim of understanding the phonetic features of nasal vowels in general.</p>