Nasality, length and diphthongization in Quebec French: An MRI study

该项目包括对魁北克法语（QF）中发生的鼻音和双元音化之间线索交易的潜在案例的生理研究。线索交换是一种机制，在这种机制中，语音对比的冗余线索的相对权重被重新分配，最终导致语言的声音发生变化。该项目侧重于从元音鼻音的磨损中增强双元音化的潜力。在QF鼻音元音中，双元音化越来越普遍，而鼻音化的减弱可能是由于鼻膜打开较晚的趋势，这两种现象在标准六边形法语中都没有发现。然而，到目前为止，尚不清楚它们是否共同变化，以及双元音化在QF中是否越来越重要，以区分“chance/chasse”（“luck/hunt”）等鼻-口最小对。这个问题仍然没有解决的原因之一是因为它涉及到鼻音，说话者通过降低他们的腭（或软腭）来发出鼻音。事实上，很难从声学信号中获得可靠的膜运动测量，而大多数生理技术间接地推断膜运动，并且仅限于极少数说话者。为了克服这些困难，该项目将利用实时磁共振成像（MRI）来直接准确地测量空前数量的QF扬声器中膜、舌和嘴唇是如何同步的（30）。应用先进的统计分析方法对这一前沿数据集将揭示：1)QF口音和鼻音之间的发音关系；2)鼻部长、短元音的磨耗程度；3)在双元音化的鼻音中，口腔和鼻音手势的变化有多密切。将特别关注数据中的非随机变化模式，这些模式可以支持（或反驳）正在进行的线索权衡的论点：预计引领变化的说话者会表现出更多的双元音化，更弱的鼻音化以及鼻音和双元音化的同相发生。这个项目很重要，因为它研究了跨语言罕见的线索组合之间可能的权衡，这为声音变化建模开辟了新的视野，也提供了长期需要的QF经验数据。该项目是申请人在QF语音学和音韵学以及语言变异和变化方面的专业知识的自然延伸，并与主办机构在语音生理学及其实时MRI分析方面的专业知识相结合。

The project consists in a physiological study of a potential case of cue trading between nasality and diphthongization occurring in Quebec French (QF). Cue trading is a mechanism where the relative weight of redundant cues to a phonological contrast is redistributed, eventually causing the sounds of a language to change. The project focuses on the potential enhancement of diphthongization from the attrition of vowel nasalization. In QF nasal vowels, diphthongization is increasingly common while the weakening of nasalization may come about because of a tendency to late velum opening, neither of which are phenomena found in standard Hexagonal French. However, it is so far unclear whether they covary, and whether diphthongization is increasingly important in QF for distinguishing nasal-oral minimal pairs like ‘chance/chasse’ (‘luck/hunt’). One of the reasons why this issue remains unsolved is because it involves nasal vowels, which speakers produce by lowering their velum (or soft palate). Indeed, it is difficult to obtain reliable measures of velum movement from the acoustic signal, while most physiological techniques infer velum movements indirectly and are limited to very small numbers of speakers. To overcome these difficulties, the project will make use of real-time magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to obtain direct accurate measures of how the velum, tongue and lips are synchronized in an unprecedentedly large number of QF speakers (30). Advanced methods of statistical analysis applied to this cutting-edge dataset will reveal: 1) the articulatory relationship between oral and nasal vowels of QF; 2) the extent of nasality attrition in short and long nasal vowels; 3) how closely oral and nasal speech gestures covary in diphthongized nasal vowels. Special attention will be paid to non-random patterns of variation in the data that could support (or refute) the thesis of an ongoing cue trade-off: speakers leading the change are expected to show more diphthongization, weaker nasality and in-phase onset of nasality and diphthongization. The project is important because it examines a possible trade-off between a cross-linguistically rare combination of cues, which opens up new horizons for modelling sound change, and also provides long needed empirical data on QF. The project is a natural extension of the applicant’s expertise in QF phonetics and phonology, as well as language variation and change, combined with that of the host institute in speech physiology and its analysis using real-time MRI.