Salient segmental features in Singapore Mandarin
新加坡华语里声母与韵母的特征
Chungyu Chen 陈重瑜

Abstract 摘要
The salient segmental features in the speech of 10 Singaporean informants are summarized as follows: Retroflexive sibilants were extremely rare. 57.0% of the palatal series were replaced by their dental counterparts, which resulted in combinations of dental sibilants before high front blade vowels, clear violations of Mandarin phonotactics. Initial x [] was particularly apt to be mispronounced. The reading of the retroflexed liquid r involved variations both between full phonemenes (/r/~/l/, and occasionally, ~/n/) and within the phoneme ([r~dz~j]). Only [r], not the incorrect variants [dz, j], varied with /l/ and /n/. The Hokkien Group showed the greatest difficulty in differentiating /r/ from /l/. The lateral l was occasionally replaced by r. Lateral l and nasal n occasionally replaced each other in the environment of a nasal ending. The velar fricative h [x] when occurring before the vowel u was sometimes read as [f] or [w]. The semi-vowel initials y and w were sometimes omitted, especially when the high vowels functioned as the main vowel rather than a medial. Confusion between i and ü was found to be a prominent feature. The informants’ readings of such syllables were strikingly unstable. About 13.6% of the i vowels were either replaced by or in variation with ü. The percentage for the reverse was 52.4%. The performance of the Cantonese Group, whose dialect is the only one among the five that has the [ü] sound, was decidedly superior. The Teochew Group, whose dialect does not have the -n ending, showed a greater difficulty in differentiating between -n and -ng. Gradual deviations from the norms on vowel qualities have also been described.

本文所讨论的特征里，有些与方言背景有关，由一些特征中可看出，不同方言背景的人彼此相互影响很大。声母方面最显着的特点是齿音z, c, s常取代颚音而出现在舌面母音之前。翘舌音 zh, ch, sh 很少见，但这是南方人的通病。翘舌流音 r 常与边音 l 混淆，偶尔也与鼻音 n 相混。r 也常被误读为 [dz] 与 [j]。闽南人这个音尤其发得不好。l 与 n 在带鼻音韵尾的音节里偶尔相混。声母 y 与 w 常被省略。母音方面 i 与 ü 的读音很不稳定，二者常相混。韵尾 -n 与 -ng 有时相混，潮州人尤其分不清此二音。此外，韵母的音值也有讨论。

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