Doctoral Dissertation Research: Oral Articulation of French Nasal Vowels

博士论文研究：法语鼻元音的口语发音

• 批准号: 1121780
• 负责人: Ryan Shosted
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1121780&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Oral; Articulation

The phonetics and phonology of vowel nasalization have been studied for some time, but the oral articulation of nasal vowels has been largely overlooked in both the phonetics and phonology literature. The acoustic consequences of nasalization obscure the oral configuration of a nasal vowel. Nevertheless, it is sometimes assumed that nasal vowels are produced with the same lingual and labial configurations as their oral equivalents. To better understand the synchronic and diachronic behavior of nasal vowels, the graduate student will examine the oral articulation of nasal vowels directly. The current project will combine articulatory, aerodynamic, and acoustic signals in order to observe lingual and labial articulation during the production of oral and nasal vowel congeners in two dialects of French: Quebec French (QF) and Northern Metropolitan French (NMF). The findings from this research are likely to have a significant impact on historical linguistics, specifically on sound change in Romance languages, as well as on the understanding of vowel nasalization more generally. Pilot results from five speakers suggest that the speakers of NMF and QF produce nasal vowels shared by both systems in different ways which are suggestive of important characteristics of vowel nasality. When the oral articulation of a nasal vowel enhances the acoustic effect of nasalization, it is possible that the degree of naso-pharyngeal coupling can be reduced while still conveying nasality of the vowel. On the other hand, when oral articulation minimizes the acoustic effect of nasalization, an emergent nasal consonant may convey vowel nasality instead. The results suggest that the inter-dialectal differences in the nasal vowel systems of QF and NMF can be explained, in part, by the inherent characteristics of vowel nasality rather than by circumstances that are specific to the evolutionary development of French. This research will also support the scientific training of a graduate student.

元音鼻化的语音学和音系学已经研究了一段时间，但鼻元音的口语发音在语音学和音系学文献中很大程度上被忽视了。鼻化的声学结果掩盖了鼻元音的口腔结构。然而，有时人们认为鼻元音的发音与口语元音的舌和唇音结构相同。为了更好地理解鼻元音的共时和历时行为，研究生将直接检查鼻元音的口腔发音。当前的项目将结合发音、空气动力学和声学信号，以便观察两种法语方言（魁北克法语（QF）和北部都会法语（NMF））在口鼻元音同系物产生过程中的舌和唇发音。这项研究的结果可能会对历史语言学产生重大影响，特别是罗曼语言的声音变化，以及更广泛地对元音鼻化的理解。 五个说话者的试验结果表明，NMF 和 QF 的说话者以不同的方式产生两个系统共享的鼻元音，这暗示了元音鼻音的重要特征。当鼻元音的口腔发音增强了鼻化的声学效果时，有可能可以降低鼻咽耦合的程度，同时仍然传达元音的鼻音。另一方面，当口腔发音最大限度地减少鼻化的声学效果时，出现的鼻辅音可能会传达元音鼻音。结果表明，QF 和 NMF 鼻元音系统的方言间差异可以部分地通过元音鼻性的固有特征来解释，而不是通过法语进化发展的特定环境来解释。这项研究还将支持研究生的科学培训。