Anterior tongue and jaw movement in sVd words

Abstract

The relations between jaw and tongue movements were examined using words of the form sVd for eight different speakers from the X-Ray Microbeam Speech Production Database. Measurements were examined at the maximum speeds during the release and during the closure of the tongue blade and tongue body. For nonhigh vowels the tongue blade traveled in the same direction as the jaw during release, and, to a lesser extent, the same was true during closure. Further, the magnitude of the projection of the tongue blade velocity onto the direction of the jaw movement was often large compared with the speed of the jaw. There was less consistency in the relation between tongue body and jaw movement. These results indicate that the jaw and tongue movements are not rigidly coupled. Rather the jaw, which can provide a hard boundary for the tongue, is getting out of the tongue’s way during release and following the tongue on closure for subsequent bracing. [Work supported by Grant NIDCD-01247 to CReSS LLC.]