Speech Timing Organization for the Phonological Length Contrast in Italian Consonants

In Italian, length contrast is exploited in the consonant system. Previous articulatory studies have focused on the temporal organization of gestures in Italian geminates and on the lower lip kinematics of the singleton/geminate distinction, and have showed that the time interval between the nuclei of two successive syllables does not depend on the number of intervening consonants (Öhman‟s Vowel-to-Vowel model) . In this paper, data on lip and tongue gestures from four Italian subjects saying “mima” and “mimma” at fast and comfortable rate of delivery are discussed in order to directly test the validity of the Öhman‟s model for the gestural organization of Italian geminate consonants.