An acoustic analysis of V-to-C and V-to-V coarticulatory effects in Catalan and Spanish VCV sequences

Abstract

V-to-C and V-to-V coarticulatory effects in F 2 frequency are studied for Catalan and Spanish VCV sequences with vowels and consonants involving different degrees of articulatory constraint on tongue-dorsum activity. The findings indicate that coarticulatory effects decrease with the degree of constraint, for the following groups of consonants and vowels: [l] > [ɬ]; [ɾ] > [r]; [ β ], [ð] > [ɣ]; [a] > [i]. Moreover, while V 2 -to-V 1 (anticipatory) effects appear to be primarily associated with the degree of tongue-dorsum constraint upon V 1 , the extent of V 1 -to-V 2 (carryover) coarticulation is dependent on the requirements on tongue-dorsum activity for the entire CV 2 gesture. Overall, results support the view that coarticulatory effects are related to the control mechanisms involved during the production of neighbouring gestures, and that anticipatory effects are more dependent on timing strategies than carryover effects