The effect of place of articulation on velopharyngeal opening in Quebecois French nasal consonants

Authors

  • Jacqueline Murray University of British Columbia
  • Melissa Wang University of British Columbia
  • Jahurul Islam University of British Columbia
  • Gillian de Boer University of British Columbia
  • Bryan Gick University of British Columbia

Abstract

Previous studies have found gradations of velopharyngeal opening (VPO) between different types of nasal segments in French, including phonemically and contextually nasalized vowels, and nasal consonants. One study looked at the effect of place-of-articulation (PoA) on VPO and found greater VPO for /m/ than /ɲ/, though this was based on only two speakers [Rochette & Grégoire (1983). Contribution à l'étude des coarticulations de consonnes occlusives et de voyelles en français, C.I.R.B - I.C.R.B]. The present study looks at more speakers and contexts to investigate whether PoA influences the extent of VPO in French nasal consonants; bilabial, alveolar, and palatal. We analysed sagittal videofluorographic films of nine speakers (5 male, 4 female) of Quebecois French from an X-ray database and measured the VPO from a sagittal view using imaging software. Linear mixed-effects models and likelihood ratios tests found that PoA was a significant contributor to the VPO ratio in speakers (p < 0.001) with no effect of sex or speaker. The greatest opening was found in /m/, which was significantly greater than /n/ and /ɲ/. These results contribute to literature supporting a gradation of VPO across conditions.

Author Biographies

Jacqueline Murray, University of British Columbia

Department of Linguistics

Melissa Wang, University of British Columbia

Department of Linguistics

Jahurul Islam, University of British Columbia

Department of Linguistics

Gillian de Boer, University of British Columbia

Department of Linguistics

Bryan Gick, University of British Columbia

Department of Linguistics

Additional Files

Published

2021-08-18

How to Cite

1.
Murray J, Wang M, Islam J, de Boer G, Gick B. The effect of place of articulation on velopharyngeal opening in Quebecois French nasal consonants. Canadian Acoustics [Internet]. 2021 Aug. 18 [cited 2024 Oct. 3];49(3):40-1. Available from: https://jcaa.caa-aca.ca/index.php/jcaa/article/view/3923

Issue

Section

Proceedings of the Acoustics Week in Canada

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