Physiological Characteristics of “Rounded Sounds” in Chinese: An Experimental Analysis Using Video of the Head Taken from the Front and Side

Abstract

In our study, 4 native Chinese speakers spoke 22 sentences with a focus on (or immediately after) 6 sets of minimal pairs that included both rounded and unrounded sounds in the same location. We recorded both the front and sides of the participants’ heads and used these recordings to generate 1,152 rounded and unrounded sounds. The movement of the lips and mouth were then depicted and measured diagrammatically, followed by statistical analysis on the resultant data. Our results show that the degree of openness of the mouth was the most important parameter for pronunciation when generating rounded and unrounded sounds.