C-V and V-C Co-articulation in Cantonese

This study investigates C-V and V-C co-articulation in Cantonese CV, VC, and CVC monosyllables, where C = [p t k] and V = [i a u]. EMA AG500 was used to record the articulatory actions of the tongue and the lips during the test syllables. The main findings based on the articulatory data collected from two male Cantonese speakers are as follows. (i) High co-articulation strength is observed when [p-] precedes [i] or [u], but not [a], whereas co-articulation strength between [-p] and a preceding vowel of any type is high. (ii) Coarticulation strength is low when [t-] precedes a vowel of any type and when [-t] follows [u], but not [i] or [a]. (iii) Coarticulation strength is low when [k-] precedes [a], not [i] or [u], but high when [-k] follows [a]. In general, the descending order of co-articulation strength is [p-] > [k-] > [t-], and the strength increases for [-p -t -k] following a vowel of any type. The findings support the phonological structuring of the syllable, where the final consonant (or syllable coda), not the initial consonant (or syllable onset), and the preceding vowel (or syllable nucleus) form the phonological unit of the rhyme.