Lip Movements for an Unfamiliar Vowel: Mandarin Front Rounded Vowel Produced by Japanese Speakers

Purpose The study was aimed at investigating what kind of lip positions are selected by Japanese adult participants for an unfamiliar Mandarin rounded vowel /y/ and if their lip positions are related to and/or differentiated from those for their native vowels. Method Videotaping and post hoc tracking measurements for lip positions, namely protrusion and vertical aperture, and acoustic analysis of vowel formants were conducted on participants' production in a repetition task. Results First, 31.2% of all productions of /y/ were produced with either protruded or compressed rounding. Second, the lip positions for /y/ were differentiated from those for the perceived nearest native vowel; although they correlated with them in terms of vertical aperture, they did not in terms of protrusion/retraction. Conclusions Lip positions for a novel rounded vowel seemed to be produced as a modification of existing lip positions from the native repertoire. Moreover, the degree of vertical aperture might be easily transferred, and the degree of protrusion is less likely to be retained in the new lip positions.