Volume 61, Issue 4

Five groups of native Japanese listeners were assigned to five conditions differing in word-external contexts. In the Intact condition, three types of target disyllables, /mVmV/, /mV:mV/, and /mVmV:/ were spoken in a carrier sentence at two speaking rates. In the other four conditions, the target disyllables of the Intact condition were excised from the original carrier sentence (Excised); embedded in the carrier sentence of the other rate (Mismatch); presented only with the preceding three syllables (Preceding), and presented only with the following three syllables (Following). The accuracy for identifying the word types was higher for the Intact than Excised and Mismatch conditions, indicating that the presence of the carrier sentence with an appropriate rate was important for accurate identification.It was also found that either the preceding or the following short phrase contained sufficient information for identifying the word types. Further, there were effects of the preceding and following phrases on both the first and second vowels of the targets, suggesting that the distant speech materials more than two phonemes away from a target in both sides can affect identification accuracy. Implications are discussed in terms of the adjacency principle for rate normalization.

This study examined the manner in which French speakers used some acoustic correlates to produce the stop voicing distinction in French sentences when syllables containing syllable initial and -final stops were between vowels (/pa_a/) and between voiceless fricatives (/pas_s/). Data analyses revealed that /b, d, g/ were longer, were more frequently phonated, and were preceded by longer vowels than /p, t, k/ in three conditions: syllable-initial stops between vowels and between voiceless fricatives and syllable-final stops between vowels. When a voiceless fricative /s/ followed /b, d, g/, the voicing contrast was reduced as a result of complete regressive voicing assimilation, achieved by the concomitant devoicing of /b, d, g/ closures and the significant reduction in voicing-related differences in preceding vowel and closure durations. When /s/ preceded /b, d, g/, the voicing distinction was enhanced: significant voicing-related duration differences were accompanied by the complete assimilation of /s/ to [z]. Overall,findings suggest that in French sentences, voicing assimilation is strictly regressive and complete assimilation is achieved by the covariation of several acoustic correlates, which attests to the complementarity of the underlying articulatory gestures.

The possible existence of language-specific articulatory settings (underlying or default articulator positions) has long been discussed, but these have proven elusive to direct measurement. This paper presents two experiments using X-ray data of 5 English and 5 French subjects linking articulatory setting to speech rest position, which is measurable without segmental interference. Results of the first experiment show that speech rest position is significantly different across languages at 5 measurement locations in the vocal tract, and is similar to previously described language-specific articulatory settings. The second experiment shows that the accuracy of achievement of speech rest position is similar to that of a specified vowel target (/i/). These results have implications for the phonetics and phonology of neutral vowels, segmental nventories, and L2 acquisition.

The present study aimed to explore the place of articulation of the Korean (pulmonic egressive) lenis, aspirated and fortis affricates /c, c^h, c’/ in comparison with that of the coronal plosive counterparts /t, t^h, t’/. For this purpose, a stroboscopiccine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) experiment was conducted to examine not only where oral contact and constriction occur during oral closure and at its release, but also which part of the tongue is involved and how the apex, the blade and the body of the tongue are positioned as a function of time. Based on the results of the MRI experiment, we propose that the affricates should be classified as alveolar like the plosives but that they could be different in tongue shapes during oral closure and at its release: the affricates are laminal and the plosives are apical or apico-laminal. This distinction is associated with correlated variations in tongue body position (measured as pharyngeal width) and tongue blade position: tongue body position is more fronted with a relatively higher tongue blade position in affricates than in plosives. It is proposed that the gestural differences between the two types of stops serve to enhance the auditory contrast between the [+strident] affricates and the [–strident] plosives.