Electromyographic (EMG) recordings were obtained from the levator palatini, superior pharyngeal constrictor, middle pharyngeal constrictor, palatoglossus, and palatopharyngeus muscles of three talkers of American English. Bipolar hooked-wire electrodes were used. Each subject read nonsense words composed of three vowels (/i, a, u/), six stop consonants (/p, b, t, d, k, g/), and two nasal consonants (/m, n/) to form various stop-nasal and nasal-stop contrasts. Multiple repetitions of each utterance type were recorded and subsequently processed by computer. The levator palatini was found to be the primary muscle of velopharyngeal closure for each of the subjects. The palatopharyngeus also showed consistent oralization activity for each of the subjects, although the activity of this muscle was strongly affected by vowel environment. Two subjects showed pharyngeal constrictor muscle activity related to oral articulation, but pharyngeal constrictor activity for the third subject was related to vowel quality. Nasal articulation was accomplished by suppression of oral articulation for each subject. Vowel quality affected the strength of EMG signals for lateral and posterior pharyngeal wall muscles. In those cases where activity was different for the three vowels, activity was greatest for /a/.
Feature spreading and coproduction models make fundamentally different assumptions about the nature and organization of speech motor control, and yet each model is supported by some, but not all, of the existing empirical data. This has led some researchers to conclude that speakers probably use alternative strategies at different times. This study suggests that the identification of coarticulatory influences requires the concurrent identification of intrinsic articulatory characteristics of the segment. Moreover, the evidence for feature spreading or variable coarticulation strategies derives from the misidentification of such intrinsic characteristics as context effects. This velar coarticulation study used a controlled comparison between CVnN and CVnC minimal pairs, where C is an oral consonant, Vn is any number of vowels, and N is a nasal consonant. Vocalic string duration was manipulated by varying the number of segments and speech rate, allowing us to alter the time between the onsets of vocalic and subsequent consonantal gestures. Velar lowering occurred in CVn sequences, whether or not a nasal consonant followed, and similar vocalic gestures were observed across minimally contrastive environments with and without the nasal consonant. Moreover, velar lowering for the nasal consonant began in close temporal proximity to the nasal murmur. These results strongly support the coproduction model and provide insight into previously conflicting reports.
This study reports on pharyngeal cavity size change mechanisms associated with voiced-voiceless stop contrast in English. Electromyographic recordings were obtained from pharyngeal and infrahyoid muscles of three speakers, using bipolar, hooked-wire electrodes. The emg potentials were sampled and averaged under computer control. The utterances sampled were 27 pairs of nonsense disyllables that contrasted only in the voicing of one stop consonant. All the English stop cognate pairs were included. Two modes of expanding the pharynx for voiced stops are proposed, each applying to a different group of muscles; an "active" mode, requiring increased muscle activity to expand the pharynx; and a "passive" mode, requiting suppression of muscle activity to expand the pharynx. The data reveal different patterns of use of the two expansion modes for the three subjects. The results are discussed in terms of current phonological theory.
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