Journal of Phonetics & Audiology
Open Access

Abstract

Phonetic Features of a Laminal Vowel in Tarama-Miyako Ryukyuan

Hayato Aoi

In this paper, I report phonetic details of a laminal vowel in the Tarama variety of Miyako Ryukyuan. The laminal vowel in Tarama-Miyako Ryukyuan is articulated with not only the back of the tongue but also the blade, i.e., it is a laminal-dorsal vocoid. While such vowels have been reported before, previous cases were allophonic, whereas the Tarama-Miyako Ryukyuan vowel is phonemic. This paper presents both acoustic (spectrographic) and articulatory (palatographic and linguographic) details of this vowel.