Articulatory characterization of English liquid-final rimes

Proctor, Michael; Walker, Rachel; Smith, Caitlin; Szalay, Tünde; Goldstein, Louis; Narayanan, Shrikanth

doi:10.1016/j.wocn.2019.100921

Cited by 19 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…A reviewer proposes that the gesture under active control could in fact be the tongue mid lowering, and not dorsal retraction. This is certainly a possibility, and one that is consistent with the observation that tongue mid lowering is more measurable across different types of /l/, compared to dorsal retraction, as seen in our own data, and as discussed by Sproat and Fujimura (1993) and Proctor et al (2019). One hint that the effect of /l/-darkening on lateralization is not entirely mechanical comes from the timing of tongue mid lowering relative to lateralization peaks.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…While the theoretical emphasis in Sproat and Fujimura's work is on dorsal retraction, they justify measuring the temporal properties of tongue mid lowering with empirical ease, compared to measuring dorsal retraction. A similar observation follows from the data presented by Proctor et al (2019), who show that the /l/-darkening effect on tongue mid lowering can be larger than the effect of dorsal retraction.…”

Section: Lateralization As a Function Of /L/-darkeningsupporting

confidence: 86%

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Locating de-lateralization in the pathway of sound changes affecting coda /l/

Strycharczuk

Derrick

Shaw

2020

Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology

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'Vocalization' is a label commonly used to describe an ongoing change in progress affecting coda /l/ in multiple accents of English. The label is directly linked to the loss of consonantal constriction observed in this process, but it also implicitly signals a specific type of change affecting manner of articulation from consonant to vowel, which involves loss of tongue lateralization, the defining property of lateral sounds. In this study, we consider two potential diachronic pathways of change: an abrupt loss of lateralization which follows from the loss of apical constriction, versus slower gradual loss of lateralization that tracks the articulatory changes to the dorsal component of /l/. We present articulatory data from seven speakers of New Zealand English, acquired using a combination of midsagittal and lateral EMA, as well as midsagittal ultrasound. Different stages of sound change are reconstructed through synchronic variation between light, dark, and vocalized /l/, induced by systematic manipulation of the segmental and morphosyntactic environment, and complemented by comparison of different individual articulatory strategies. Our data show a systematic reduction in lateralization that is conditioned by increasing degrees of /l/-darkening and /l/-vocalization. This observation supports the idea of a gradual diachronic shift and the following pathway of change: /l/-darkening, driven by the dorsal gesture, precipitates some loss of lateralization, which is followed by loss of the apical gesture. This pathway indicates that loss of lateralization is an integral component in the changes in manner of articulation of /l/ from consonantal to vocalic.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Lateralization As a Function Of /L/-darkeningsupporting

confidence: 86%

Locating de-lateralization in the pathway of sound changes affecting coda /l/

Strycharczuk

Derrick

Shaw

2020

Laboratory Phonology: Journal of the Association for Laboratory Phonology

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“…During the period where l-dors and the vowel overlap, the goal states for these gestures will be blended, with the relative contribution of each gesture dictated by its specified α value. A key finding of the study by Proctor et al (2018) is that GenAm laterals have a lower coarticulatory dominance than rhotics, which we interpret as corresponding to a lower specified blending strength ( α value) for laterals than rhotics. We suggest that the lower blending strength of the lateral enables l-dors to overlap with the vowel without significantly compromising contrasts in vowel quality.…”

Section: The Structure Of Rhymes With Postvocalic Liquidsmentioning

confidence: 56%

“…For the gestural representation of GenAm liquids, we assume two coordinated lingual gestures, and in the case of onset rhotics, also a labial gesture. Following Proctor et al (2018), we posit a TT gesture and a TB gesture for GenAm rhotics and laterals. For the coronal articulation of /ɹ/, a glide-like TT gesture is specified for the constriction [Palatal] and constriction degree [Narrow] 5 .…”

Section: The Structure Of Rhymes With Postvocalic Liquidsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Henceforth we will use ‘subsegments’ to refer to the atomic units of which segments are composed, corresponding to the level represented by gestures or features. In the case of coda liquids in General American English, a dorsal articulation precedes a coronal articulation (Sproat & Fujimura 1993, Browman & Goldstein 1995, Proctor et al 2018). This is an instance of temporal control, which more generally may take the form of abstract sequencing or synchrony over subsegments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The organisation and structure of rhotics in American English rhymes

Walker

Proctor

2019

Phonology

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Language-specific maximal size restrictions on syllables have been defined using frames such as moraic structure. In General American English, a trimoraic syllable template makes largely successful predictions about contexts where tense/lax vowel contrasts are neutralised, but neutralisation preceding a coda rhotic has not been adequately explained. We attribute the apparent special properties of coda /ɹ/ to two characteristics of its representation, informed by our articulatory investigation: sequential coordination of dorsal and coronal subsegmental units and a high blending strength specification, corresponding to high coarticulatory dominance. Characteristics of coda laterals are compared. Our approach employs phonological representations where sequencing is encoded directly among subsegments, and coordination is sensitive to strength. Mora assignment is computed over sequencing of subsegments, predicting that complex segments may be bimoraic. The account brings phonotactics for rhymes with postvocalic liquids into line with the trimoraic template, and supports representing coordination and strength at the subsegmental level.

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Loose lips and tongue tips: The central role of the /r/-typical labial gesture in Anglo-English

King

2020

Journal of Phonetics

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This paper presents acoustic and articulatory data from prevocalic /r/ in the non-rhotic variety of English spoken in England, Anglo-English. Although traditional descriptions suggest that Anglo-English /r/ is produced using a tip-up tongue configuration, ultrasound data from 24 speakers show similar patterns of lingual variation to those reported in rhotic varieties, with a continuum of possible tongue shapes from bunched to retroflex. However, the number of Anglo-English speakers using exclusively tip-up variants is higher than that reported in American English across all phonetic contexts. It is generally agreed that English /r/ may be labialised, but the exact contribution of the lips has yet to be explored. Lip camera data reveal significantly more lip protrusion in bunched tongue configurations than retroflex ones. These results indicate that the differing degrees of lip protrusion may contribute to maintaining a stable acoustic output across the different tongue shapes. An articulatory-acoustic trading relation between the sublingual space and the degree of lip protrusion is proposed. Finally, we suggest that Anglo-English /r/ has a specific lip posture which differs from that of /w/. We relate the development of such a posture to Anglo-English speakers' exposure to labiodental variants and to the pressure to maintain a perceptual contrast between /r/ and /w/.

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Articulatory characterization of English liquid-final rimes

Cited by 19 publications

References 49 publications

Locating de-lateralization in the pathway of sound changes affecting coda /l/

Locating de-lateralization in the pathway of sound changes affecting coda /l/

The organisation and structure of rhotics in American English rhymes

Loose lips and tongue tips: The central role of the /r/-typical labial gesture in Anglo-English

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