Interarticulator programming in VCV sequences: Lip and tongue movements

Abstract

This study examined the temporal phasing of tongue and lip movements in vowel-consonant-vowel sequences where the consonant is a bilabial stop consonant /p, b/ and the vowels one of /i, a, u/; only asymmetrical vowel contexts were included in the analysis. Four subjects participated. Articulatory movements were recorded using a magnetometer system. The onset of the tongue movement from the first to the second vowel almost always occurred before the oral closure. Most of the tongue movement trajectory from the first to the second vowel took place during the oral closure for the stop. For all subjects, the onset of the tongue movement occurred earlier with respect to the onset of the lip closing movement as the tongue movement trajectory increased. The influence of consonant voicing and vowel context on interarticulator timing and tongue movement kinematics varied across subjects. Overall, the results are compatible with the hypothesis that there is a temporal window before the oral closure for the stop during which the tongue movement can start. A very early onset of the tongue movement relative to the stop closure together with an extensive movement before the closure would most likely produce an extra vowel sound before the closure.

Context-dependent articulation of consonant gemination in Estonian

“…In the /t/-context in stimuli differing only in consonant length, the transition starts later for /ɑ-i/ compared to /i-ɑ/-context. A general tendency of an earlier start of the lingual movement in the case of the /ɑ-i/-transition was found in some other studies (Löfqvist & Gracco, 1999;Šimko & Cummins, 2009Šimko & Cummins, , 2010.…”

“…The details of relative timing of the onsets of these two parallel gestures, however, depend on articulatory characteristics of the vowels involved in the intervocalic transition. For example, the transition movement tends to start relatively earlier with respect to the lip closing one when the transition is /ɑ-i/ as opposed to/i-ɑ/ (Löfqvist & Gracco, 1999;Šimko & Cummins, 2009Šimko & Cummins, , 2010. The relative timing is also influenced by the preceding consonant: The lip closure onset for a bilabial is delayed relative to the onset of intervocalic transition if the preceding consonant is a homorganic bilabial compared to a non-homorganic one, e.g., /t/ (Šimko et al, 2014; see also a discussion of gestural crowding in Beňuš & Šimko, 2014).…”

“…between the relevant position measure (position of the TB sensor, value of the derived 'lip aperture' measure) at the onset and offset of the gesture. In addition, the lip-tongue coordination measure was computed as the onset time of the vowel transition movement minus the onset time of the bilabial closing movement (see Löfqvist & Gracco, 1999;Šimko & Cummins, 2010Šimko & Cummins, , 2011Šimko et al, 2014).…”

On the phonetic status of syllabic consonants: Evidence from Slovak

“…For CV syllables, these phase relationships result in a near-simultaneous articulation of the onset and the nucleus, and it is due to the different dynamic parameterization of the onset and nucleus that the vowel extends in time beyond the duration of the onset (Löfqvist and Gracco 1999). In CCV syllables, the anti-phase CC and in-phase CV phasing relationships are incompatible in that the requirement for two consonants to be simultaneously in-phase with the nucleus and anti-phase with each other cannot be satisfied at the same time.…”

“…In onset, consonant-vowel production happens (near-)simultaneously. For a production of a labial onset followed by a vowel, for example, the vowel gesture may start before the lip gesture has reached its target (Perkell 1969;Löfqvist and Gracco 1999), but the vowel extends temporally beyond the consonant, presumably due to its lower stiffness parameterization.…”