Chapter Two：The acoustic phonetic values of the Ningbo vowels

2.1　Introduction

In this chapter, I will discuss the acoustic phonetic values of the Ningbo vowels in the （C）V or （C）V? position.There are ten vowels that occur in the （C）V position in Ningbo, as schematically represented in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1：A schematic representation of the vowel system in Ningbo Chinese.

Phonologically speaking, Ningbo Chinese, like many other Chinese dialects, does not contrast in vowel length.However, there are two phonetically short vowels [a o], which occur in the （C）V? position, i.e., in the syllable checked with a glottal stop.In this study, I will name the vowels that occur in the （C）V syllables as the normal-length vowels, and the vowels that occur in the （C）V? syllables as the short vowels.There are two additional ‘apical’ vowels in Ningbo, namely the unrounded apical alveolar [?] and its rounded counterpart [?], both of which are preceded obligatorily by an alveolar affricate or fricative.In this study, I will follow the phoneticians’ tradition in China to use the non-IPA symbols, namely the long-leg turned Iota [?] and the curvy turned H [?], to transcribe the two ‘apical’ vowels （for a discussion of the usage of the two phonetic symbols, see Pullum ＆ Ladusaw, 1996）.The concept of the ‘apical’vowels, however, is not recognized by the IPA.They are treated as syllabic consonants, for instance, the unrounded apical alveolar vowel is regarded as a syllabic alveolar fricative or more properly a syllabic alveolar approximant , and the rounded , or （refer to Lee ＆ Zee, 2003, to see an example of the treatment of the apical vowels in Standard Chinese）.