The Articulation of the Coronal Sounds in the Peking Dialect

This paper investigates the articulatory characteristics of the syllable-initial coronal stop ‘d’, fricatives ‘s sh x’, affricates ‘z zh j’ and approximant ‘r’ in the Peking dialect. Palatograms and linguograms show that the syllable-initial (i) ‘d’ is apico-laminal denti-alveolar [ ]; (ii) ‘s z’ are laminal alveolar or denti-alveolar [ ]; (iii) ‘sh zh r’ are apical postalveolar or pre-palatal [ ]; and (iv) ‘x j’ are anterodorsal postalveolar or alveolopostalveolar [ ]. The findings in this study constitute evidence against the claim that ‘sh zh r’ and ‘x j’ in the Peking dialect are retroflexes and palatals, respectively. The findings also show that it is necessary to include the information about lingual contact, otherwise the description of the articulatory properties of the coronal sounds in question will be