台灣閩南語中，加上小稱詞綴“仔”(-a)會引起母音之間的子音有聲化及雙子音化的現象，長久以來一直受到觀察。例如 “竹子” tik a 的語音形式是[tik ga]。本論文利用兩個實驗來測試在“仔”及“個”(-e)之前的子音的地位：到底台灣閩南語使用者是怎樣看待這些介於單音節字根及詞綴“仔”及“個”的子音。
第一個實驗為音節顛倒實驗，在這個實驗中要求受試者將雙音節字的順序顛倒過來唸再觀察他們如何切分音節。第二個實驗為概念形成實驗，實驗中六組不同的受試者在訓練階段被訓練對在第二音節的目標聲子音作出正面的回應，以觀察在測試階段中，台灣閩南語使用者是否認為在詞綴“仔”及“個”之前是否有個聲母子音存在。
實驗一的結果顯示受試者傾向於將詞綴“仔”及“個”視為沒有聲母子音，然而在實驗二中受試者的傾向不明確：在[l]和[g]組中受試者傾向認為詞綴有聲母子音；在[b]，[m]和[n]組當中受試者的傾向依然是不明確的；而在目標聲為零聲母的組別中，受試者的回答則傾向認為第二音節詞綴沒有聲母子音。對於這兩個實驗的結果我們的解釋為：受試者應該意識到在表層結構中，是有子音存在在詞綴“仔”及“個”之前的，但是他們並不認為這樣的聲母子音是存在於深層結構中。另一方面，在這兩個實驗當中，部分反應顯示有些包含詞綴“仔”及“個”的字逐漸地在改變：隨著時間的改變，一些從前面音節的韻尾子音延伸到詞綴“仔”及“個”之前的聲母子音漸漸地固定在深層結構中，特別是[l]。

The intervocalic voicing and gemination induced by the suffixation of the diminutive suffix a in Taiwan Southern Min have long been observed. For example, the phonetic form of tik a ‘bamboo’ is [tik ga]. In this study we conducted two experiments to examine the status of onset consonants of the suffixes –a and –e: how the native speakers treat the intervocalic consonants between mono-syllable stems and the following suffix a and e. The first experiment is called ‘syllable-flip-flop’ test, in which the experimenter asked the subjects to reverse the order of two syllables in bisyllabic words and observed how they syllabify it. The second experiment was ‘concept formation’ test in which the subjects in six different conditions were trained to respond positively to the target sound in the onset position of the second syllables in the learning session to examine whether the native speakers thought that there was an onset consonant preceding the suffix a and e in the test session. The results of Experiment 1 showed that the subjects inclined to treat the suffix –a and –e as onsetless, whereas in Experiment 2 we found that the subjects’ tendencies were still equivocal: the subjects of [l] and [g] conditions tended to treat the suffix –a and –e with an onset; subjects’ answering tendencies to the test items in [b], [m] and [n] conditions were still vague; the subjects’ answering pattern in zero-onset condition was to treat the second syllables as onsetless. The interpretation of the results from these two experiments may be that the subjects were aware of the existence of the onsets in the surface form in the initial positions of the suffixes –a and –e; however, they didn’t consider this kind of onsets as underlying. On the other hand, some responses in both experiments showed that a few words containing the suffixes –a and –e have been changed: as time goes on, some spread onsets before the suffixes –a and –e will be fossilized becoming and underlying, especially the [l] sound.

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