Coarticulation in CV syllables: A locus equation and EPG perspective Free

Stop, nasal, and fricative consonants of Australian English were paired with a wide variety of vowel monophthongs to form CV syllables which were placed in a carrier phrase. The EPG and acoustic data were obtained from four female speakers producing these phrases. Locus equations [Lindblom, Acoust. Soc. Am. 35, 1773–1781 (1963)] were generated from the acoustic data, and coarticulation indices [Farnetani, Speech Production and Speech Modelling, edited by Marchal and Hardcastle (1990), pp. 93–130] were calculated from the EPG data. The coarticulation indices were compared with the slope values from the locus equations [Krull, PERILUS 10, 87–108 (1989)] in order to determine the degree of coarticulatory resistance for a given consonant phoneme as measured in the articulatory and acoustic domains. Results suggest that the greatest degree of coarticulation is shown in the labial and velar consonants, and less in the apico‐alveolar consonants. The least degree of coarticulation is shown by the lamino‐postalveolar consonants /S Z/. These results agree with data from Australian Aboriginal languages and with results presented by Recasens for Catalan [J. Phon. 12, 61–73 (1984); 19, 177–192 (1991)].