Production and perception of zero and nasal initials in Malaysian Cantonese / Chan Huey Jien

Chan , Huey Jien (2024) Production and perception of zero and nasal initials in Malaysian Cantonese / Chan Huey Jien. Masters thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Cantonese zero initial /Ø/ and nasal initial /ŋ/ are allophones in complementary distribution since the Middle Chinese period. However, the phonetic variation of these two initials has been found in contemporary Cantonese in China. The nasal initial /ŋ/ has been frequently replaced by the zero consonant /Ø/. This is considered a “lazy pronunciation” that commonly occurs among the younger generation and is presumed to be influenced by Mandarin, the national language of China. However, previous research pointed out that this “lazy pronunciation” does not seem to occur in Cantonese in Southeast Asia. In light of this, it is worth examining the development of these two initials in Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia that is well known for its multilingualism. The speech production and perception of Cantonese speakers towards these two initials were investigated to achieve the aim of this study. A total of 20 Cantonese speakers participated in the production task, and 40 Cantonese speakers participated in the perception task. 20 of them participated in both the production task and the perception task. All of them are third-generation and onward Malaysian Chinese from the central region, aged between 20 and 31 years. A list of disyllabic words was used to collect production and perception data. The production of these two initials is analysed using phonetic analysis; the perception of the listeners towards these two initials is investigated using a discrimination task; and the effects of linguistic and nonlinguistic factors on production and perception are investigated using the variable rule analysis method. This study reveals that these two Cantonese initials may not be in complementary distribution but rather in free variation in the central region of Malaysia. An opposite situation to Cantonese in China emerged in the central region of Malaysia. The nasal consonant [ŋ] is the phoneme dominating among these two initials in the central region of Malaysia. Furthermore, the findings in both production and perception suggest that linguistic factors show a more significant effect on phonetic variation compared to non-linguistic factors. The vowel type is the most significant factor constraining the phonetic variation of these two initials.

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