Fricative Vowels in Changzhou Wu: An Acoustic and Articulatory Study

Fricative vowels have been recognized as sounds with both vowel-like and consonant-like features, highlighting their typological scarcity. Taking Changzhou Wu as a case study, this thesis investigates the phonetic and phonological aspects of fricative vowels, particularly coronal fricative vowels. The production of Changzhou Wu fricative vowels from both acoustics and articulation perspectives and their phonological patterning is examined. Specifically, it addresses key questions such as whether fricative vowels should be classified as vowels or consonants, how fricative vowels differ from apical vowels, and what phonological processes may have contributed to their development. This study aims to broaden the understanding of fricative vowels by examining this understudied language. This thesis includes data from a total of 40 speakers from the central area of Changzhou, who participated in three studies presented across three chapters. The first study is a preliminary acoustic and phonological investigation, providing pilot data on the formants and lip postures of both coronal and labial fricative vowels, as well as the F0 patterns of all the tones. The second study is the main acoustic study. It measures the vowel-like and fricative-like properties of fricative vowels based on formants, spectrograms, zero-crossing rate (ZCR), and harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR). The results reveal that the two types of fricative vowels exhibit different frication patterns and that tone influences not only the frication noise of coronal fricative vowels but also the high vowel [i]. In addition, the findings highlight both formant and frication differences between apical vowels and fricative vowels. The third study is an articulatory study using ultrasound tongue imaging as the primary method. It characterizes the articulation of coronal fricative vowels and compares them to other high vowels as well as to the alveolo-palatal affricates. The findings reveal two distinct articulatory patterns for unrounded and rounded coronal fricative vowels. In addition, two possible constriction mechanisms were identified. Finally, a [tɕ]- or [tɕh]-like configuration was defined for the articulation of coronal fricative vowels. Several findings are reported and contribute to broader discussions on fricative vowels. First, the possible causes of fricativization may include assimilatory processes, aerodynamic effects associated with breathiness in lower tonal registers, and perceptually driven phonologization. Second, a distinction between apical vowels and fricative vowels has been established, although the two terms have often been used interchangeably in the existing literature. Third, this study addresses the vowel/consonant categorization of fricative vowels and proposes a fricative-vowel continuum, which situates both fricative vowels and apical vowels on it.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Linguistics

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Yuan, Aixin

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Brown, Jason
• Huang, Karen

• fricative vowels
• phonetics
• phonology
• Wu Chinese

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/75401

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/75401