An x‐ray microbeam study of the effect of lexical stress position and speech rate on word‐medial stop consonants in American English

Previous research indicates that total durations of work‐medial stop consonants in all places of articulation (except /g/) are significantly shorter (p < 0.05) preceding an unstressed syllable than when preceding a stressed syllable [A. Turk, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 85, S136 (1989)]. The extremely short duration of American English flaps is a well‐documented instantiation of this more general timing phenomenon. In this study, the articulatory patterns underlying the observed durational differences are explored in different stress environments: before a stressed vowel, immediately following a stressed vowel, and between two unstressed vowels at two rates of speech. The test words are of the form locále, lócal, and fóllicle. Velocities and displacements of the primary articulators involved in the production of each consonant will be compared across these conditions to see whether greater duration is a result of greater displacement or of holding the articulation longer. The effect of stress and rate on the phasing of consonant gestures with respect to vowel gestures will also be reported. [Work supported by Sigma Xi grants in aid of research.]