Presentation: Yu-chiao
Summary: Hsiang-Yu
This is a sociolinguistic study of how
syllable-final velar nasals preceded by [i] or [ə] merge with dental nasals in
Taiwan Mandarin. Drawing data from interviews with a total of 35 subjects from
Taipei and Tainan, the study argued that the nasals merged differently when
preceded by different vowels, and that there were effects of place of origin
and gender, but no effects of current residence. There was also an effect of
topic on only the /əŋ/ merger, but further inspection showed inconsistency
between northerners and southerners. Regardless of regressive assimilation,
perceptual realization revealed that southerners applied /iŋ/→[in] more frequently
and females applied less frequently. For /əŋ/→[ən], Taipei females used more
frequently while Tainan females used less frequently. This could be partially
explained by Fon et al. (2011) that /əŋ/→[ən]
was an innovation and was considered positive in the north while it has a negative
connotation among southerners.
