Coarticulatory stability in American English /r/

J Acoust Soc Am. 1997 Jun;101(6):3741-53. doi: 10.1121/1.418333.

Abstract

A number of different researchers have reported a substantial degree of variability in how American English /r/ coarticulates with neighboring segments. Acoustic and articulatory data were used to investigate this variability for speakers of "rhotic" American English dialects. Three issues were addressed: (1) the degree to which the F3 trajectory is affected by segmental context and stress, (2) to what extent the data support a "coproduction" versus a "spreading" model of coarticulation, and (3) the degree to which the major acoustic manifestation of American English /r/--the time course of F3--reflects tongue movement for /r/. The f3 formant trajectory durations were measured by automatic procedure and compared for nonsense words of the form /'waCrav/ and /wa'Crav/, where C indicates a labial, alveolar, or velar consonant. These durations were compared to F3 trajectory durations in /'warav/ and /wa'rav/. In addition, formant values in initial syllables of words with and without /r/ were examined for effects of intervening consonant contexts. Results indicated similar F3 trajectory durations across the different consonant contexts, and to a lesser degree across stress, suggesting that coarticulation of /r/ can be achieved by overlap of a stable /r/-related articulatory trajectory with movements for neighboring sounds. This interpretation, and the concordance of F3 time course with tongue movement for /r/, was supported by direct measures of tongue movement for one subject.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Palate / physiology
  • Phonation* / physiology
  • Phonetics*
  • Reference Values
  • Sound Spectrography
  • Speech Acoustics
  • Speech Articulation Tests*
  • Tongue / physiology