An articulatory study of high vowels in Mandarin produced by native and non-native speakers

Abstract

This paper examined the articulatory properties of high vowels [i], [y], and [u] in Mandarin produced by four Taiwanese Mandarin native speakers and four English-speaking Chinese learners (L2 learners) with an Electromagnetic Articulagroph AG500. The articulatory positions of the tongue top (TT), the tongue body (TB), the tongue dorsal (TD), and the lips were investigated. The TT, TB, and TD of [y] produced by the L2 learner were further back than that by the native. In addition, the TD of [y] by the L2 learners was higher than the native. Further comparison found that the tongue positions of [y] was similar to [u] in L2 production. Regarding to the lip positions, the [y] and [u] were more protruded that [i] in the native production, while there is no difference among these three vowels in the L2 production. The findings suggested that most of the L2 learner were not aware that the lingual target [y] should be very similar to [i] but the lip articulators of [y] are more protruded than [i]. Some L2 learners pronounce [y] more like a diphthong [iu] rather than a monophthong.