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The Suzhou Chinese “apical” and “fricative” vowels: Uniformity and idiosyncrasy

“Fricative” and “apical” vowels have been variously described as syllabic voiced fricatives, syllabic approximants, or high vowels, often based on impression. To better characterize their articulatory and acoustic nature, ultrasound video and acoustic data on the production of the “fricative” and “apical” vowels were collected from 43 speakers of Suzhou Chinese, along with the vowels [i, y, ae, u] and the fricatives [s, ɕ]. Analysis reveals substantial interspeaker variation, largely idiosyncratic, which may contribute to the range of descriptions given to “fricative” and “apical” vowels. This variation, however, obscures the fact that the “fricative” vowels are curiously uniform in tongue posture with the alveolopalatal fricatives for most speakers. The “apical” vowels are consistently produced with a tongue posture similar to the alveolar fricatives and affricates, such as [s], that they obligatorily follow. The “fricative” vowels, on the other hand, are phonotactically freer, and speakers exhibit a wider range of articulatory strategies. Individuals’ favored articulations can be situated on a continuum between lamino-postalveolar, or [ɕ]-like, and dorso-postalveolar, akin to an advanced [i]; most speakers favor the lamino-postalveolar strategy. Acoustic analysis suggests that speakers also vary in whether they favor production of fricative noise during both the “fricative” and “apical” vowels.“Fricative” and “apical” vowels have been variously described as syllabic voiced fricatives, syllabic approximants, or high vowels, often based on impression. To better characterize their articulatory and acoustic nature, ultrasound video and acoustic data on the production of the “fricative” and “apical” vowels were collected from 43 speakers of Suzhou Chinese, along with the vowels [i, y, ae, u] and the fricatives [s, ɕ]. Analysis reveals substantial interspeaker variation, largely idiosyncratic, which may contribute to the range of descriptions given to “fricative” and “apical” vowels. This variation, however, obscures the fact that the “fricative” vowels are curiously uniform in tongue posture with the alveolopalatal fricatives for most speakers. The “apical” vowels are consistently produced with a tongue posture similar to the alveolar fricatives and affricates, such as [s], that they obligatorily follow. The “fricative” vowels, on the other hand, are phonotactically freer, and speakers exhibit a wide...