A video-fluorographic investigation of tip and blade alveolars in English

Abstract

The participation of tongue-tip and tongue-blade in the production of English alveolar contoids was studied using image-intensifier fluorography. Videotape recordings of subjects reading a word list in which the alveolars occurred singly, in clusters and separated by vocoids, were examined, and the alveolars were classified using a numerical index relating tongue tip-height and blade-height. For alveolars standing singly tip articulations were preferred, except in the case of the fricatives, which in seven out of eight speakers were laminal. CC clusters showed clear evidence of lingual coarticulation between adjacent tip and blade contoids; and the same pattern of coarticulation was apparent, though operating to a lesser extent, between alveolar contoids in CVC sequences. Throughout, these coarticulatory adjustments were considerable in the contoids [n, 1, t, d] but minimal in the fricatives [s, z], and this finding is related to the notion of coarticulation resistance.