BILABIAL TRILL INDUCED BY FRICATIVE HIGH ROUNDED VOWEL: THE EMERGING OF ＂Tʙ＂ IN THE WU DIALECT OF SU-WAN BOUNDARY

This paper describes the phonetic properties of ＂Tʙ＂ in the Wu dialect of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces of China (Su-Wan) boundary and discusses the articulation conditions of ＂Tʙ＂ in phonetics. We argue that the consonant, mainly the voiceless apico-alveolar plosives or affricates [t/ts/tʃ] as well as their aspirated counterparts tend to undergo trillization. On the other hand, at least three features [+high] [+rounded] [+fricative] for the vowels should be guaranteed. It is further argued that unlike the claim of Ladefoged and Everett (1996), ＂Tʙ＂ is not rare in the world's language, but yields a high relevance to the friction of the high rounded vowel.