The Articulatory Coordination for Nasal Plosion in the Utai Singing of Noh Theatrical Performance and its Phonological Characterization

Abstract

This paper investigates the articulatory coordination for consonantal sequences called nomu etc. in Noh Japanese theatrical performance, which is an orally-passed-down pronunciation maneuver of Sino-Japanese coda consonant -t released with a nasal plosion (e.g., [matn̩dai]). We conducted real-time MRI analysis for nine utai phrases of Noh by two professional performers. The results find that the oral articulation (tongue tip closure, TT) substantially precedes the nasal articulation (velic aperture, VEL). The acoustic analysis of the same phrases reveals a strong positive correlation of the duration between the oral (non-nasal) and nasal closure intervals, suggesting a constant timing relation between the two articulatory gestures. The two sets of results exhibit a sharp contrast with the coordination patterns found for onset (synchrony) and coda (sequential, with VEL preceding TT) in the preceding studies, underpinning an exceptional phonological status of nasal plosion of being a syllable coda and a syllabic consonant simultaneously.