本研究旨在從構音角度探討台灣閩南語介音（又稱韻核前滑音）的音韻地位，這是一個長期以來在漢語音韻學界存在爭議的問題。介音在音節結構中的確切位置及其與聲母和韻母的關係一直是學術討論的焦點。為了深入探究這個問題，我們採用了先進的電磁構音儀技術來收集高精度的構音數據。研究對象包括八位台灣閩南語母語者，他們發音的語料涵蓋了該語言中的各種音節類型。我們仔細分析了這些發音人的構音模式，特別關注聲母、介音和元音之間的關係。本論文的主要發現挑戰了一些傳統觀點，結果顯示：聲母與介音的組合（CG）與聲母與元音的組合（CV）在構音特徵上並無本質區別。這一結論基於以下關鍵觀察：聲母的持阻長度（onset plateau）與「聲母-介音」或「聲母-元音」的「起始點間隔」（onset-to-onset lag）之間不存在具有統計學顯著性的共變關係。
這一發現具有重要意義，它暗示了台灣閩南語中介音的並不具備特殊音韻地位。具體而言，我們的數據支持這樣一個觀點：台灣閩南語的聲母與介音在時間上是同步啟動的，而聲母與元音的關係也呈現相同的模式。這一結果不僅對台灣閩南語的音韻分析有重要啟示，也為其他漢語的相關研究提供了新的視角。

This study aims to investigate the phonological status of glides (also known as on-glides or pre-nuclear glides) in Taiwanese Southern Min from an articulatory perspective, addressing a long-standing controversial issue in Chinese phonology. The exact position of glides in syllable structure and their relationship with onset consonants and nuclei have been the focus of academic discussions. To thoroughly examine this issue, we employed advanced electromagnetic articulography technology to collect high-precision articulatory data. The study involved eight native speakers of Taiwanese Southern Min, whose speech samples covered various syllable types in the language. We carefully analyzed the articulatory patterns of these speakers, paying particular attention to the relationships between onset consonants, glides, and/or vowels.
The main findings of this paper challenge some traditional views, revealing that there is no essential difference in articulatory features between consonant-glide (CG) combinations and consonant-vowel (CV) combinations. This conclusion is based on a key observation: there is no statistically significant covariance between the onset plateau duration and the onset-to-onset lag of either "consonant-glide" or "consonant-vowel" sequences.
This discovery has significant implications, suggesting that glides in Taiwanese Southern Min do not possess a special status. Specifically, our data support the view that in Taiwanese Southern Min, onset consonants and glides are initiated synchronously, and the relationship between onset consonants and vowels exhibits the same pattern. This result not only has important implications for the phonological analysis of Taiwanese Southern Min but also provides new perspectives for phonological research in other Sinitic languages.
 

ABSTRACT i
摘要 iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
TABLE OF CONTENT vii
LIST OF FIGURES ix
LIST OF TABLES x
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Literature Review 2
1.2 Phonology of Taiwanese Southern Min 8
1.3 Hypotheses and Prediction 10
2 EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS 13
2.1 Speakers 13
2.2 Materials 13
2.3 Data Acquisition 15
2.4 Experimental Procedures 15
2.5 Analysis 17
3 RESULTS 24
3.1 CG combinations 24
3.2 CV combinations 32
4 DISCUSSION 45
4.1 The unstable /pw/ data point distribution 45
4.2 Separated /tj/ data points 47
4.3 Onset-to-onset lag values are close to 0 in /kj/, /ki/ (and /tj/, /ti/) 49
4.4 The relation between the results of CG and CV combinations 51
5 CONCLUSIONS 53
REFERENCES 56

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