Tongue/palate contact for the production of /s/ and /z/

Clin Linguist Phon. 2006 Jan-Feb;20(1):51-66. doi: 10.1080/02699200400021331.

Abstract

Productions of /s/ and /z/ by ten adult speakers were investigated using the electropalatograph (EPG). The participants, ten speech researchers who spoke English as their first language, recorded productions of /s/ and /z/ in nonsense and real words. The maximum contact frame was used as the point of reference to compare tongue/palate contact for each production. Each speaker had alveolar contact, lateral bracing and most had a midline groove for both /s/ and /z/; however, the array of contacted electrodes was unique for each speaker. The groove widths and lengths ranged from 0-3 electrodes. There was significantly greater alveolar tongue/palate contact for /z/ compared to /s/ in word-initial position, but not in word-final position for the following measures: alveolar palatal contact, medial groove width, medial groove length. However, when measures of total palate contact and centre of gravity were considered, there was a complex interaction between the phonemes /s/ and /z/, coarticulation with the vowel, word position, and word context (real and nonsense words).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Palate / physiology*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Speech / physiology*
  • Speech Acoustics
  • Speech Production Measurement
  • Tongue / physiology*