Doctoral Dissertation Research: Oral Articulation of French Nasal Vowels

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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.