Transitional cues in fricative noise in Greek /s/-stop and stop-/s/ sequences: Children versus adults.

Abstract

Greek is one of the few languages to allow /s/-stop and stop-/s/ sequences at three places of articulation (bilabial, dental, and velar) in word-initial position. This study measured the coarticulation of /s/ with the following or preceding stop in native Greek-speaking children’s and adults’ productions of real words beginning with /sp/, /st/, /sk/, /ps/, /ts/, and /ks/, in a variety of vowel contexts. The aim was to determine whether stop place cues are signaled effectively in the spectrum of adjacent /s/ in both types of consonant sequences attested in Greek. Fast Fourier transform spectra were calculated for overlapping 10-ms windows from the beginning to the end of fricative noise and spectral moments were computed in each window. Systematic differences in the fricative spectra as a function of the adjacent stop consonant were observed in the /s/+stop sequence (as in English) and also in the stop+/s/ sequence (where the differences in the portion after the stop burst proper mirrored the patterns at the end of the fricative in the clusters in the other order). Coarticulation was comparable across age groups, although there was greater variability in children’s productions. [Work supported by NIDCD Grant No. R01DC02932 and NSF Grant No. BCS-0729140.]