An articulatory study of coronal consonants in Arrernte

Abstract

This paper presents electro-magnetic articulography (EMA) data on the four coronal stops of Arrernte, an Australian language. The stops are: the lamino-dental ‘‘th,’’ the apico-alveolar ‘‘t,’’ the apico-postalveolar (or ‘‘retroflex’’) ‘‘rt,’’ and the lamino-palatal ‘‘ty.’’ Jaw, tongue tip (TT), and tongue body (TB) data were collected for two female speakers of the language. Results for the first speaker show a fronted tongue position for the laminal consonants, with the TT reflecting a similar location for both the dental and the palatal. However, for the palatal, the TB position is much higher, whereas for the dental, the TB is very low. For the apical consonants, the TT is not as far forward, and the TB is not quite as high as for the lamino-palatal. For both TT and TB, apico-postalveolar is further back than apico-alveolar. For the second speaker, the TT sensor failed, but in line with the first speaker, the TB sensor showed a higher position for the palatal. The other stops were lower and more forward, with the postalveolar TB position higher than the laminal or alveolar stop position. For both speakers, the jaw position is lowest for the postalveolar. [Work supported by Australian Research Council and NIH: NIDCD.]