Preliminary Study on Articulatory Timing of Japanese Geminate Obstruents in Native Chinese Speakers

－Based on Ultrasound Data－

Abstract

In this ultrasound study, we compared the gestures and their relative timings for Japanese geminate obstruents produced by a native Chinese speaker and a native Japanese speaker, with special focus on the tongue tip (TT) rising gesture. The duration of TT gesture was shorter in the learner’s speech compared to the native speaker. However, for both speakers, the onset of TT rising gesture overlapped with the production of the preceding vowel. We also observed that while TT gesture of the native speaker is accompanied with simultaneous tongue blade (TB) rising gesture, the two gestures occur in sequence for the learner. Taken together, the results suggest the need for further acoustic analyses as well as articulatory analyses beyond TT gesture, including other relevant articulatory gestures.