An articulatory analysis of apical syllables in Standard Chinese

In the present paper, the synchronous Ultrasonic and EMA data of two participants were collected to observe the Tongue and Jaw movements during the production of zi and zhi in Mandarin Chinese. Results of data analysis partly verified the viewpoint that the performance of articulators in producing the two apical syllables are different, which in turn suggests that the vowels of the two apical syllables are totally different in nature, with the vowel after z as the voiced extension of that alveolar apical consonant, and the vowel after the post-alveolar consonant zh being a real apical vowel in Standard Chinese.