Acoustic characteristics and distribution of variants of /l/ in the Nanjing Dialect

Bin Li, Caicai Zhang, Ratree Wayland

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

Abstract

This paper reports acoustic characteristics of variants of /l/ and their distributions in the sound system of the Nanjing Dialect (NJ) in China. Prevocalic /l/ in NJ is reported to have different variants conditioned by the vowel context, yet no empirical evidence has been provided to support this claim. This study provides an analysis on temporal and spectral properties of allophonic variants of /l/ in the Nanjing Dialect, incorporating a set of statistical methods sequentially applied such as cluster analysis and discriminant analysis. Our approach is tested and proves valid in addressing the allophonic distribution of /l/ in the contemporary NJ. Statistical analysis and acoustic examination reveal two variants of /l/ in different vowel environments in this dialect.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)281-300
Number of pages20
JournalJournal of Quantitative Linguistics
Volume19
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Dec 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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