本研究旨在探究馬來西亞檳城和馬六甲福建話的元音聲學特徵及其相關議題。先前關於口鼻元音音長的研究多針對法語、葡語等語言，但對於閩南語的探究甚少。此外，馬來西亞福建話的元音共振峰數值，尤其是鼻元音的數值，也較少被探究。因此本論文系統性地研究馬來西亞檳城和馬六甲福建話元音的聲學特徵及口鼻元音的差異。先前單元音共振峰的分析往往僅根據元音中點，但本研究也檢視了元音共振峰的動態軌跡，我們尤其討論了馬六甲福建話央元音/ɨ/和/ə/的共振峰軌跡。研究結果發現：(1)鼻元音的音長總體而言比相對應的口元音來得長，此結果呼應了先前文獻所提及的觀點，即口鼻元音的差異可能可以透過音長來維持(Carignan, 2017)。(2)鼻元音的第二共振峰(F2)數值一般來說高於對應的口元音。然而，先前研究發現鼻元音的F2數值通常會比其對應的口元音來得低(Delvaux et al., 2002; Manyah, 2011)，此發現與本研究結果不同。(3)有些單元音的共振峰軌跡移動幅度較大，此結果和我們的預期不同。此外，有些馬六甲福建話語者的央元音/ɨ/共振峰軌跡移動幅度較大，但大多數馬六甲福建話語者的央元音/ə/共振峰軌跡移動幅度卻較小。(4)舌冠音和央元音/ɨ/的協同發音(coarticulation)導致有些馬六甲福建話語者的/ɨ/共振峰軌跡F2數值較高。透過研究先前較少探究的馬來西亞福建話聲學主題，希冀能對閩南語的語言紀錄做出貢獻。

This study aimed at exploring the acoustic properties of vowels of Southern Min varieties spoken in Penang and Melaka in Malaysia. Previous studies on the durations of oral and nasal vowels in languages such as French, Portuguese, etc., have been conducted. However, acoustic investigations on this topic in Southern Min are rare. In addition, formant frequency values of the vowels, especially the nasal vowels, in Malaysian Hokkien are less explored. As a result, this thesis systematically investigated the acoustic properties of vowels as well as the oral-nasal vowel distinction in two Malaysian Hokkien varieties spoken in Penang and Melaka. Prior formant analyses of monophthongs tended to be only based on vowel midpoints. In the current study, dynamic formant trajectories of the vowels were also examined, and those of the central vowels /ɨ/ and /ə/ in Melaka Hokkien were specifically discussed. The findings of this study are as follows: (1) Nasal vowels were generally longer than their corresponding oral vowels, which supported the view that the oral-nasal vowel distinction might be maintained via vowel length (Carignan, 2017). (2) Nasal vowels generally had higher F2 values than their oral equivalents, which did not agree with earlier findings suggesting that F2 values of nasal vowels tended to be lower (Delvaux et al., 2002; Manyah, 2011). (3) Greater formant movements were seen for some monophthongs, which differed from our expectation. Also, formant movements of the central vowel /ɨ/ for some of the Melaka speakers were substantial while those of the central vowel /ə/ for most of the Melaka speakers were relatively stationary. (4) The coarticulation of coronal onsets and the following /ɨ/ was found to lead to the higher F2 of the /ɨ/ formant trajectories for some of the Melaka speakers. By investigating such previously unexplored acoustic topics in Malaysian Hokkien, this study contributes to the linguistic documentation on Southern Min varieties.

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