An Acoustically Based Contrastive Study of L1 and L2 Nasal Coda Production

According to Ladefoged and Maddieson (1999), nasals are among the most common sounds in languages around the world. As the most common sounds, these three nasals are presumably among the easiest to produce and acquire. However, Mandarin speakers seem to have difficulty articulating English /n, ŋ/ codas. For example, Hansen’s (2001) study reveals that Mandarin speakers tend to produce English /ŋ/ as /n/ in words such as sing and song, which renders sing/song similar to sin/son. However, the confusion between English /n, ŋ/ seems not only limited to Beijing Mandarin speakers but also common among othe Chinese speakers and even native English speakers. For example, in Zee's (1981) perceptual study of nasal coda identification by native English speakers, /n, ŋ/ are often confused in the high vowel context. Thus, a more satisfactory explanation is needed to account for the alternation of English /n, ŋ/ by Mandarin speakers.