Abstract
This study is an articulatory investigation of the coronal consonants in Malaysian Mandarin, with special reference to the non-“canonical” realization of the sibilants. Our principal findings are: (i) d is apico-laminal dentialveolo-alveolar [t], (ii) s and sh are mostly laminal alveolar [s?z, zh], and are the same as those of the corresponding fricatives, (iii) x has two phonetic variants: laminal alveolar [?] (“canonical”) and laminal (denti-)alveolar [??] (non-“canonical”, fronted), and (iv) j, as compared to z and zh, has a wider midsagittal contact, i.e., apical dentialveoloalveolar [t?]. Another important new finding is that the two variants of x are contextually conditioned. Specifically, the high front vowel [i] and the palatal glide [j] often co-occur with the non-“canonical”, fronted x (i.e., [??]), while the “canonical” [?] is found elsewhere. The phenomenon in question is attributable to language contact-induced sound change.