Vowels and Diphthongs in Hangzhou Wu Chinese Dialect

This paper gives an acoustic phonetic description of the vowels and diphthongs in Hangzhou Wu Chinese dialect. Data from 12 speakers, 6 male and 6 female, were measured and analyzed. Monophthongs were investigated in CV, CVN and CVC syllables; diphthongs were examined in terms of temporal organization, spectral properties and dynamic aspects. Results suggest that falling diphthongs tend to have a single dynamic target, while rising diphthongs have two static spectral targets.