Individual variability in the perception and production of coarticulated speech

Coarticulation, the influence of speech sounds on each other, is ubiquitous in speech. Such contextual effects in speech have been argued to be phonological in nature, given that coarticulation appears to be language-specific and planned. In this talk, I argue further for the phonological nature of coarticulation, using findings from recent behavioral and neurophysiological studies. In particular, I argue that the systematic variability across individuals in how coarticulated speech is produced and perceived suggests that individuals acquire different phonological grammars of coarticulation. These findings have significant ramifications for theories of speech perception, production, and sound change.