Palatal Complexity Revisited: An Electropalatographic Analysis of /ɲ/ in Brazilian Portuguese with Comparison to Peninsular Spanish

Abstract

Are palatal consonants articulated by multiple tongue gestures (coronal and dorsal) or by a single gesture that brings the tongue into contact with the palate at several places of articulation? The lenition of palatal consonants (resulting in approximants) has been presented as evidence that palatals are simple, not complex: When reduced, they do not lose their coronal gesture and become dorsals; instead, they manifest reduced linguopalatal contact while retaining their anterior place of articulation. The frequently-reported deocclusivization of the Brazilian Portuguese (BP) palatal nasal may support this claim. However, the linguopalatal configuration of this sound has not been studied directly. Electropalatographic evidence from three speakers of BP (compared with data from three speakers of Peninsular Spanish) demonstrates that the palatal nasal is frequently realized as an approximant. There is no evidence of anterior occlusion in BP's post-palatal, lenited nasal. Under conditions of focus/hyperarticulation, there is no evidence of stronger/more anterior occlusion. We argue that the articulatory target of the BP palatal nasal is neither occluded nor anterior.

Phonological and phonetic properties of nasal substitution in Sasak and Javanese

“…Thus, [ɲ] in Sasak and in Javanese is characterized as having a longer region of palatal constriction than [ʨ], and this articulation is consistent with that observed in electropalatalographic data for Peninsular Spanish alveolo-palatal ñ [ɲ] (Martínez Celdrán & Fernández Planas, 2007;Fernández Planas, 2009;Shosted et al, 2012).…”

“…Under the abstract hypothesis, sions for comparing articulation that do not appear in these images (such as the larynx, lips, posterior pharyngeal wall), and the images are two dimensional while the vocal tract is three dimensional. 11 Differences between homorganic oral and nasal consonants would be consistent with results in Gibbon et al (2007) and Shosted et al (2012). Gibbon et al (2007) show that [t] and [d] have more contact than [n] in normal adult speakers of English, using electropalatography, while Shosted et al (2012) show that degree of contact also varies between different languages: [ɲ] in Peninsular Spanish involves a fair degree of occlusion in the alveopalatal region, whereas in Brazilian Portuguese the [ɲ] has a degree of closure more like an approximant, with an articulatory target that is neither occluded nor anterior in the oral cavity.…”

An acoustical analysis of the merger of /ɲ/ and /nj/ in Buenos Aires Spanish

“…These phonological differences, according to Martínez Celdrán & Fernández Planas (2007), surface acoustically as differences in duration of the vocalic portions as well as spectral characteristics. By the same token, the articulatory literature has documented the Peninsular Spanish /6/ well (Fernández Planas 2000, 2009Shosted, Hualde & Scarpace 2012) and provides additional support for the phonetic differences between /6/ and /nj/. For example, the findings in Shosted et al (2012) indicate that the (alveolo)palatal nasal presents a wide pattern of occlusion in the alveolar and front palatal area.…”

Place of articulation of anterior nasal versus oral stops in Croatian

“…This is also reflected in a relatively high percentage of incomplete closures in /n/ found in this study. Previous studies show that incomplete closures of anterior lingual nasals are quite common (Gibbon et al 2007, Shosted et al 2012). Previous research also shows that weakening of /d/ is not atypical and that incomplete closures can be an important indication of cavity enlargement strategies (Fuchs & Perrier 2003).…”

“…Furthermore, a lower amount of linguopalatal contact in nasals when compared with nonnasals is another characteristic often reported in other languages (McLeod 2006, Gibbon, Yuen, Lee & Adams 2007, Shosted, Hualde & Scarpace 2012. The main reason for this seems to be higher intraoral pressure in /t/ and /d/ when compared with /n/ (Subtelny, Worth & Sakuda 1966, cited in Gibbon et al 2007, resulting in higher lingual pressure and consequently increased linguopalatal contact in oral stops.…”