Volume 29, Issue 3

Detailed information on the motions and configurations of the tongue during speech is crucial for a complete understanding of the control of speech production by neural mechanisms. In this paper, the main available instrumental techniques for obtaining information on lingual activity are briefly described and their potential application in speech research critically evaluated.

This fourth article in a series presenting the results of a computer-assisted analysis of a tape-recorded corpus of upper-class French conversations deals with the distribution and frequency of occurrence of phonemes in that language. Statistics are given for all phonemes in word-initial and word-final positions, together with grand totals for all positions, and for consonant clusters, as they occur within words and as they are created by word juncture. The numerical results are interpreted in the context of several prevalent notions about French.