90 research outputs found

    Articulatory and Acoustic Characteristics of German Fricative Clusters

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    Background: We investigate the articulatory-acoustic relationship in German fricative sequences. We pursue the possibility that /f/#sibilant and /s#integral/ sequences are in principle subject to articulatory overlap in a similar fashion, yet due to independent articulators being involved, there is a significant difference in the acoustic consequences. We also investigate the role of vowel context and stress. Methods: We recorded electropalatographic and acoustic data from 9 native speakers of German. Results: Results are compatible with the hypothesis that the temporal organization of fricative clusters is globally independent of cluster type with differences between clusters appearing mainly in degree. Articulatory overlap may be obscured acoustically by a labiodental constriction, similarly to what has been reported for stops. Conclusion: Our data suggest that similar principles of articulatory coordination underlie German fricative clusters independently of their segmental composition. The general auditory-acoustic patterning of the fricative sequences can be predicted by taking into account that aerodynamic-acoustic consequences of gestural overlap may vary as a function of the articulators involved. We discuss possible sources for differences in degrees of overlap and place our results in the context of previously reported asymmetries among the fricatives in regressive place assimilation. (C) 2016 S. Karger AG, Base

    Patterns of jaw coarticulatory direction and linguomandibular coordination in VCV sequences

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    Data on lingual movement, dorsopalatal contact and F2 frequency presented in previous papers of ours (Recasens, 2002; Recasens and Pallarès, 2001; Recasens, Pallarès and Fontdevila, 1997) suggest that the degree of articulatory constraint (DAC) model accounts to a large extent for the extent and direction of tongue dorsum coarticulation in VCV and CC sequences. A goal of this investigation is to verify the predictions of this model with respect to jaw V-to-V effects in VCV sequences using articulatory movement data collected with electromagnetic articulometry (EMA)

    Russian assimilatory palatalization is incomplete neutralization

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    Incomplete neutralization refers to phonetic traces of underlying contrasts in phonologically neutralizing contexts. The present study examines one such context: Russian assimilatory palatalization in C+j sequences. Russian contrasts plain and palatalized consonants, with the plain consonants having a secondary articulation involving retraction of the tongue dorsum (velarization/uvularization). However, Russian also has stop-glide sequences that form near-minimal pairs with palatalized stops. In the environment preceding palatal glides, the contrast between palatalized and plain consonants is neutralized, due to the palatalization of the plain stop (assimilatory palatalization). The purpose of the study is to explore whether the neutralization is complete. To do so, we conducted an electromagnetic articulography (EMA) experiment examining temporal coordination and the spatial position of the tongue body in underlyingly palatalized consonants and those derived from assimilatory palatalization. Articulatory results from four native speakers of Russian revealed that gestures in both conditions are coordinated as complex segments, i.e., they are palatalized consonants. However, there are differences across conditions consistent with the residual presence of a tongue dorsum retraction gesture in the plain obstruents. We conclude that neutralization of the plain-palatal contrast in Russian is incomplete; consonants in the assimilatory palatalization condition exhibit inter-gestural coordination characteristic of palatalized consonants along with residual evidence of an underlying tongue dorsum retraction (velarization/uvularization) gesture

    Contextual reduction of word-final /l/ in Spanish:An EPG study

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    Investigating the asymmetry of English sibilant assimilation: Acoustic and EPG data

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    We present tongue-palate contact (EPG) and acoustic data on English sibilant assimilation, with a particular focus on the asymmetry arising from the order of the sibilants. It is generally known that /s# / sequences may display varying degrees of regressive assimilation in fluent speech, yet for / #s/ it is widely assumed that no assimilation takes place, although the empirical content of this assumption has rarely been investigated nor a clear theoretical explanation proposed. We systematically compare the two sibilant orders in word-boundary clusters. Our data show that /s# / sequences assimilate frequently and this assimilation is strictly regressive. The assimilated sequence may be indistinguishable from a homorganic control sequence by our measures, or it can be characterized by measurement values intermediate to those typical for / / or /s/. / #s/ sequences may also show regressive assimilation, albeit less frequently and to a lesser degree. Assimilated / #s/ sequences are always distinguishable from /s#s/ sequences. In a few cases, we identify progressive assimilation for / #s/. We discuss how to account for the differences in degree of assimilation, and we propose that the order asymmetry may arise from the different articulatory control structures employed for the two sibilants in conjunction with phonotactic probability effects.casl2pub2269pub

    Phonetic variability and grammatical knowledge: an articulatory study of Korean place assimilation.

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    The study reported here uses articulatory data to investigate Korean place assimilation of coronal stops followed by labial or velar stops, both within words and across words. The results show that this place-assimilation process is highly variable, both within and across speakers, and is also sensitive to factors such as the place of articulation of the following consonant, the presence of a word boundary and, to some extent, speech rate. Gestures affected by the process are generally reduced categorically (deleted), while sporadic gradient reduction of gestures is also observed. We further compare the results for coronals to our previous findings on the assimilation of labials, discussing implications of the results for grammatical models of phonological/phonetic competence. The results suggest that speakers’ language-particular knowledge of place assimilation has to be relatively detailed and context-sensitive, and has to encode systematic regularities about its obligatory/variable application as well as categorical/gradient realisation

    Allophonic Variation in the Spanish Sibilant Fricative

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    In Spanish, the phoneme /s/ has two variants: [z] occurs in the coda when preceding a voiced consonant, and [s] occurs elsewhere. However, recent research has revealed irregular voicing patterns with regards to this phone. This dissertation examines two of these allophonic variations. It first investigates how speech rate and speech formality contribute to the gradient and variable nature of the voicing assimilation rule. Next, it explores possible intervocalic /s/ voicing in Highland Colombian Spanish. In accordance with other studies, the results showed partial voicing of coda position /s/ before voiced consonants (25%-80% voiced frication noise). Furthermore, there was scarce evidence for intervocalic /s/ voicing in the Colombian data (3%-35% voiced frication noise). Both studies led to the same conclusion; that gestural blending is a prominent and frequently occurring process in Spanish. In both cases, the vocal chords begin to vibrate in anticipation of the following sound (either a voiced consonant or vowel) before the constriction needed to produce the fricative has ended. The data revealed that there is a significant correlation between speech rate and the degree to which the adjacent segments overlap with one another. However, speech formality does not appear to be a function of the gestural overlap. In addition to the two factors tested (speech rate and speech formality), this dissertation also provides other possible factors which may affect the degree to which segments overlap such as its position within the syllable (onset versus coda) and following segment type (vowel versus consonant)

    Características linguopalatales de la nasal palatalizada en español

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    La nasales en posición implosiva se adaptan muy fácilmente al punto de articulación del segmento siguiente. Las diferencias de punto de articulación que mantienen entre sí las diferentes variantes no siempre son constatables acústicamente, pero sí articulatoriamente. Este estudio pretende poner de manifiesto la diferencia entre la nasal alveolar, la nasal palatalizada y la nasal alveolopalatal en español a través de datos obtenidos de dos hablantes mediante un electropalatógrafo, una de las herramientas más eficaces en el análisis instrumental articulatorio. Los datos nos permiten interpretar la nasal palatalizada como un elemento a medio camino entre la alveolar y la alveolopalatal más que como un elemento identificado claramente con la alveolopalatal.Coda nasals adapt very easily to the place of articulation of following segment. The differences in place of articulation of the different variants are not always verifiable acoustically, but they can be distinguished articulatorily. This study shows the difference between the alveolar nasal, the palatalized nasal and the alveolopalatal nasal in Spanish, through electropalatographic data obtained from two speakers. Electropalatography is one of the most effective techniques in the instrumental analysis of articulation. The results of the analysis reveal that the palatalized nasal, rather than being identifiable as an alveo palatal nasal, can be identified as a different segment halfway between the alveolar and alveopalatal nasals.La nasales en posición implosiva se adaptan muy fácilmente al punto de articulación del segmento siguiente. Las diferencias de punto de articulación que mantienen entre sí las diferentes variantes no siempre son constatables acústicamente, pero sí articulatoriamente. Este estudio pretende poner de manifiesto la diferencia entre la nasal alveolar, la nasal palatalizada y la nasal alveolopalatal en español a través de datos obtenidos de dos hablantes mediante un electropalatógrafo, una de las herramientas más eficaces en el análisis instrumental articulatorio. Los datos nos permiten interpretar la nasal palatalizada como un elemento a medio camino entre la alveolar y la alveolopalatal más que como un elemento identificado claramente con la alveolopalatal

    Catalan

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    This chapter presents a general overview of the phonetics and phonology of Catalan, taking into consideration both segmental and suprasegmental phenomena. The chapter provides an updated state-of-the-art report of the most recent investigations in this area. Though the report concentrates on the standard variety, Central Catalan, we also highlight the rich dialectal variation that affects both segmental and prosodic properties. After a brief introduction to the dialectal distribution of the language, the first part of the chapter is devoted to segmental phonology. In this part, we first present the basic segmen-tal inventories of the language, as well as syllable structure types; we then describe the phonological processes that affect both vocalic and consonantal systems. The prosodic part of the chapter covers the main prosodic characteristics of the language, followed by a description of the intonational variation found for a variety of sentence types
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