Phonetic description of alveolar phones using electropalatography.

PURPOSE To describe the articulation of the Brazilian Portuguese, by examining the tongue-palate contact in the production of consonantal phones. METHODS The electropalatography (EPG) of the alveolar consonants of the Brazilian Portuguese produced by an individual with typical speech was used, considering the alveolar, post-alveolar, palatal, and velar rates, as well as the percentage of activated contacts at the point of maximum constriction, and the visual inspection of palatograms. RESULTS As expected, it was observed that all the examined phones have more contact in the alveolar region at the point of maximum constriction. The phones /t/, /d/ and /n/ showed more alveolar contact, with total obstruction of the air stream; the fricative phones /s/ and /z/ were characterized by the absence of contact at the central longitudinal axis; the lateral phone /l/ did not present contact at the lateral longitudinal axis, and the tap /[symbol: see text]/ showed not only few tongue-palate contacts but it was also produced in the shortest duration time. CONCLUSION The electopalatography allowed a detailed description of the extension of the tongue-palate contact in the different alveolar phones of the Brazilian Portuguese and how they occur.