The effect of a palatal resin plate on consonant articulation

This is the introductory paper of the forthcoming series of papers on the articulation of the Japanese consonants with a full denture and denture plate. The purpose of this research is to examine how the insertion of a full denture and denture plate affects the articulation of the Japanese consonants by comparing the articulation with and without it. The material for the experiment are thirty groups of Japanese words and phrases that are uttered by normal native speakers of Japanese with and without the insertion of a full denture and denture plate. Each of the thirty groups of Japanese words and phrases contains a Japanese consonant to be examined. The phonetic apparatus used are the sound spectrograph, oscillograph, phono-laryngograph, flow-nasalitygraph, etc. The aim of this research is to examine how the insertion of a full denture and denture plate affects the articulation of the Japanese consonants by means of comparing the articulation with and without it. Introduced below are three tables of Japanese consonants/syllables presented by other scholars in Japan. Table 1 is quoted from Bunkacho (The Agency of Cultural Affairs, Japan) (1983). Table 2 is quoted from Kindaichi (1988). Table 3 is quoted from M. Onishi (1984).