The Nasality of Voiced Stops and Vowels in Taiwan Min Revisited

再論台閩語濁子音與母音的鼻化問題

This study used an identification test technique to investigate whether native speakers of Taiwan Min treat nasal and oral consonants and vowels as distinct entities. Thirty subjects were asked to judge whether pairs of two-syllable words contained the same sound. In one part of the test, they were asked to judge if the first sounds (which were consonants) were the same, while in another part of the test, they were asked to judge if the second sounds (which were vowels) were the same. The results showed that the subjects treated the nasal-oral consonant pairs neither as containing the same sounds nor as different sounds. More specifically, the subjects rejected the [l/n] pair; but the subjects'answers were unsure for the [b/m] and [g/N] pairs. This result, we surmise, may have been due to the fact that these pairs of sounds are‘phonetically’different, and such phonetic difference may have influenced the subjects'judgments. In testing vowels, on the other hand, the number of positive answers for the test items is significantly higher than that of the negative answers. This single fact suggests that the subjects regarded the nasalized vowels and their oral counterparts as belonging to the same categories. Thus the conclusion in Wang 2001 is further confirmed.

本研究利用語音判別的方式探討台閩語子音與母音的鼻音性問題。在實驗中，受試者要判定每一題中兩個雙字詞的語音是否相同。在實驗的第一部份，要判定兩個詞的第一音節聲母是否相同，再第二部分，要判定兩個詞的第一音節韻母是否相同。實驗結果顯示，受試者認為[l]與[n]的聲母是不同的，但在另兩組[b]與[m]以及[g]與[N]結果就不確定。受試者既不認為這兩組音相同，又不認為他們不同。在韻母方面，則傾向於認為鼻母音與非鼻母音是屬於同一個音。