Tse, J. K. P. (2000). The Perceptual saliency of palatality, dentality, and retroflexion in Mandarin consonants: An experimental study. Studies in English Literature and Linguistics, 26, p.97–111.
Whether the palatal sounds have a phonemic status in Mandarin has long been debated as they come in complementary distribution with dental, retroflex, and velar series. Previous phonological analyses have suggested ways in solving this issue, but as these solutions are not self-evident, the author thinks that it would be best to resort to production and perception data. To test the relative perceptual saliency of the retroflex, dental, and palatal pairs, the author sliced out all the relevant consonants and placed them in a CV syllable with the vowel always being [a]. Later on, these sounds were played to 34 subjects and they were asked to identify the sound. The results showed that retroflexes were the most salient, followed by dentals, with palatals coming in the last place. Apart from finding a hierarchy in the place of articulation, a hierarchy was also found in the manner of articulation with aspirated affricates being the most salient, followed by fricative and unaspirated affricates. These results suggest a need in the modification of romanization symbols.
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