An EPG study of the alveolar vs. retroflex apical contrast in Central Arrernte

Abstract

This study presents EPG (ElectroPalatoGraphic) data from Central Arrernte, an Australian language which has a phonemic contrast between two types of apical consonants: alveolar and retroflex. Results suggest that some apical articulations are highly stable across repetitions, while others are highly variable. More precisely, the most stable and prototypical alveolars (i.e. with a flat EPG contact profile), and the most stable and prototypical retroflexes (i.e. with a forward movement during EPG closure), occur in the phonologically stressed syllable of the word (i.e. the second underlying VC syllable). By contrast, the alveolar in an alveolar-/ ə/-retroflex sequence is highly variable in production. Initial contact is generally retracted for this alveolar, presumably in anticipatory coarticulation with the following retroflex. However, there may also be forward movement of the tongue during closure for the alveolar. It is argued that coarticulation and gesture-spreading models cannot account fully for these data. Instead, the formant structure associated with the later retroflex renders the previous apical ambiguous, and speaker/listeners may then re-interpret the first apico-alveolar as being retroflex. It is therefore possible that in Arrernte, the apical contrast is neutralized not in word-initial position per se (as is typical of most languages containing this contrast), but in the weak initial (V)C syllable of the word.