Apical vowels are widely observed across Chinese dialects, such as the rime of [sɹ̩55] ‘think’ in Mandarin Chinese, which is a syllabic approximant homorganic to its preceding sibilant. The apical vowels in Hefei Mandarin differ from those in Mandarin Chinese and most other languages in three aspects: (i) there are three phonetic apical vowels [ɹ̩], [ɹ̩ʷ], and [ɻ̩] while others usually have one or two, (ii) the alveolar apical [ɹ̩] appears after both homorganic and non-homorganic consonants, e.g. [sɹ̩] vs. [pɹ̩], and (iii) there is a phonological contrast between an unrounded apical [ɹ̩] and a rounded apical [ɹ̩ʷ], e.g. [sɹ̩] vs. [sɹ̩ʷ]. The articulatory properties of the three apical vowels were examined in this study using ultrasound techniques and the results revealed that: (i) the commonalities of tongue gestures for the apical vowels include a retracted tongue root, a lowered tongue dorsum or blade, or both, together with a coronal constriction implemented with the blade and/or the tip; (ii) lip gestures are involved in distinguishing the three apical segments; (iii) the three segments each have its distinct articulatory gestures within a speaker that cannot be simply attributed to the influence from their preceding consonants, with [ɹ̩] and [ɹ̩ʷ] involving a grooving in the front part of the tongue and [ɻ̩] involving a retraction of tongue body in the back region of the vocal tract; (iv) the articulatory gesture of [ɹ̩] after a homorganic consonant, e.g. in [sɹ̩], is similar to that after a non-homorganic consonant, e.g. in [pɹ̩], suggesting an independent articulatory target for this segment.

中文翻译：

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合肥官话顶元音的发音特性

尖元音在汉语方言中广泛存在，例如 [sɹ̩55] 普通话中的“思考”，它是一个与其前面的咝音近似的音节。合肥官话的顶元音与普通话和大多数其他语言的顶元音有以下三个方面的不同：（i）有[ɹ̩]、[ɹ̩ʷ]和[ɻ̩]三个语音顶元音，而其他语言通常只有一到两个，（ ii) 齿槽尖音 [ɹ̩] 出现在同构辅音和非同构辅音之后，例如 [sɹ̩] 与 [pɹ̩]，以及 (iii) 不圆角尖音 [ɹ̩] 和圆角尖音 [ɹ̩ʷ] 之间存在音系对比]，例如 [sɹ̩] 与 [sɹ̩ʷ]。本研究使用超声波技术检查了三个顶元音的发音特性，结果显示：（i）顶元音的舌头姿势的共同点包括舌根缩回、舌背或舌片降低或两者兼有，与用刀片和/或尖端实现的冠状收缩一起；(ii) 唇形有助于区分三个顶端部分；(iii) 这三个片段在说话者中各有其独特的发音姿势，不能简单地归因于其前面辅音的影响，其中 [ɹ̩] 和 [ɹ̩ʷ] 涉及舌头前部的凹槽，而 [ɻ̩]涉及声道后部区域的舌体回缩；(iv) 同质辅音后的[ɹ̩]发音姿势，例如[sɹ̩]，与非同质辅音后的发音姿势相似，例如[pɹ̩]，表明该段有一个独立的发音目标。