Articulatory Characteristics of Single and Blended Lingual Gestures

This study uses electropalatography to investigate the temporal and spatial organization of lingual consonants in English consonant clusters. Reduction differences between onsets and codas and between stops and fricatives are observed. Gestural overlap explains contact patterns in juncture geminates. INTRODUCTION AND METHOD The sequences considered are (1) juncture geminates—[d#d], [s#s], & [g#g]—which are realized with a single raising and lowering of the tongue, and (2) sequences in which one lingual consonant occurs with a labial consonant —[d#b], [b#d], [s#b], [b#s], [g#b], & [b#g]. The sequences were read in the phrase “Type baC Cab again” and recorded using electropalatography. Seven tokens of each sequence from each of five speakers are analyzed. In all the sequences, only a single consonant articulation is made against the palate, and no other consonantal constriction interferes with it. Based on EPG contact profiles, metrics were calculated indicating the spatial and temporal extent of the lingua-palatal contact. Effects of syllable position, place, and manner are tested. For a more detailed description of the method see [1], [2]. RESULTS The contact profiles for the front region for [d#d] (geminated), [d#b] (coda), and [b#d] (onset) are shown for one of the five speakers in Figure 1. The y-axis represents the percent of the pseudopalate region (front or back) registering lingual contact at a particular point in time; the x-axis represents time in frames of .01 seconds. The null hypothesis, clearly not supported, is that the three contact profiles for a consonant—juncture geminate, coda, and onset—are the same.