In General American English (GAE), only two full vowels [ɑ, ɔ] occur in syllables ending in [ɹ] plus a non-coronal consonant, e.g. <harp>, <pork>. An articulatory study of rhotic production by three speakers of GAE was conducted using real-time structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rtMRI) (Narayanan et al. 2004). Subjects produced /ɹ/ in simple and complex syllable codas in a range of vocalic environments. Results show that the tongue dorsum shows the least movement in [-ɑɹ-] and [-ɔɹ-] sequences. This dorsal stability sheds light on why [ɑ] and [ɔ] are the only full vowels occurring before codas with /ɹ/ and a non-coronal consonant. English syllable rimes have been analyzed as maximally three timing units in length (Hammond 1999). Long vowels occupy two units, and most coda consonants occupy one unit, rendering rimes with long [ɑ]/[ɔ] followed by [ɹp] or [ɹk] problematic. We hypothesize that the high degree of overlap in the dorsal posture in [ɑɹ] and [ɔɹ] sequences allows their gestures to be partially blended and function like a diphthong that occupies two units in the rime. This study supports a view of maximal constituency in rimes with [ɹ] that takes articulatory overlap into account.
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2 June 2013
ICA 2013 Montreal
2–7 June 2013
Montreal, Canada
Speech Communication: Session 5aSCb: Production and Perception II: The Speech Segment (Poster Session)
May 14 2013
Articulatory overlap in English syllables with postvocalic /ɹ/
Rachel Walker;
Rachel Walker
Linguistics, University of Southern California, 3601 Watt Way, GFS 301, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693
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Michael Proctor
Michael Proctor
Linguistics, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, NSW Australia
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Rachel Walker
Michael Proctor
Linguistics, University of Southern California, 3601 Watt Way, GFS 301, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1693
Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 19, 060259 (2013)
Article history
Received:
January 21 2013
Accepted:
January 29 2013
Citation
Rachel Walker, Michael Proctor; Articulatory overlap in English syllables with postvocalic /ɹ/. Proc. Mtgs. Acoust. 2 June 2013; 19 (1): 060259. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4799574
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