Articulatory and acoustic investigation of coronals in Hakha Chin

Coronal obstruents are profoundly common typologically, occurring in most or all of the world’s known languages. Very few languages, however, contrast coronal obstruents at the dental and alveolar places of articulation. Hakha Chin—also known as Lai—is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in western Myanmar that is reported to do so. Very little phonetic research on Chin exists, but Maddieson and Van Bik (2004) provide acoustic and static articulatory data (palatography and linguography) suggesting that the contrast is between a lamino-dental series and an apico-alveolar series. We follow up on that research using dynamic, volumetric articulatory imaging in the form of 3D/4D ultrasound. Articulatory and acoustic data from two native speakers of Chin are presented in order to contribute to a more thorough understanding of this typologically uncommon contrast.