Doctoral Dissertation Research: Oral Articulation of French Nasal Vowels

元音鼻化的语音学和音系学研究已经有一段时间了，但在语音学和音系学文献中，鼻元音的口语发音在很大程度上都被忽视了。鼻化的声学后果模糊了鼻元音的口头构形。然而，有时人们认为，鼻音产生的舌形和唇形与口语元音相同。为了更好地了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头发音。目前的项目将结合发音、空气动力学和声学信号，以观察在产生两种法语方言：魁北克法语(QF)和北部大都会法语(NMF)的口头和鼻音同源元音时的语言和唇部发音。这项研究的发现可能会对历史语言学产生重大影响，特别是对罗曼语的语音变化，以及对元音鼻化的更广泛的理解。来自五个说话者的实验结果表明，NMF和QF的说话者以不同的方式产生两个系统共享的鼻音，这表明了元音鼻音的重要特征。当鼻元音的口头发音增强鼻化的声学效果时，可以在保持元音的鼻音的同时降低鼻咽耦合的程度。另一方面，当口语发音将鼻化的声学效果降到最低时，出现的鼻辅音可能会传达元音鼻音。这些结果表明，QF和NMF鼻音系统的方言间差异可以部分地由元音鼻音的固有特征来解释，而不是由法语进化发展所特有的环境来解释。这项研究还将为研究生的科学培养提供支持。

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.