Vowels and Diphthongs in the Taiyuan Jin Chinese Dialect

On the basis of an acoustic phonetic analysis of monophthongs and diphthongs, this paper describes vowel phonology in the Taiyuan Jin dialect. The results show that Taiyuan has a comparable but different vowel inventory for C(G)V versus C(G)VN syllables. And the vowel contrast is dramatically reduced in checked syllables. The asymmetry between falling and rising diphthongs suggests a dynamic account of vowels, rather than a sequential taxonomy of vowels into monophthongs and diphthongs. Phonetically, monophthongs are composed of a static spectral target, falling diphthongs are composed of a dynamic spectral target, and rising diphthongs are sequences of two spectral targets. Phonologically, falling diphthongs are grouped with monophthongs, rather than rising diphthongs.