Bidirectional C-to-V coarticulation across syllable and word boundaries

Abstract

Extensive work has explored the anticipatory or carryover coarticulatory effects of consonants on F2 of adjacent vowels using locus equation. However, studies examining bidirectional effects remain scarce. This study examines how voicing and place of articulation (PoA) of consonants affect bidirectional C-to-V coarticulation across syllable and word boundaries. Recordings of / C;1V;1.C;2V;2/, /C;1V;1#C;2V;2/ and /C;1V;1C;2#V;2t/ sequences from native speakers of Canadian English were analyzed. F0, F1, and F2 were measured at the onset and offset of the target vowels (/i ɑ/) to compare the coarticulatory effects caused by the adjacent consonants with different voicing and PoA (/p b t d g k/). Preliminary results (N = 6) indicate that coarticulatory effects vary based on voicing and PoA of consonants. Voiceless consonants exhibited a greater effect on f0 bidirectionally, but smaller effects on F1 and F2. Regarding PoA, only the effect of F2 in anticipatory contexts was dependent on different PoA. The findings also suggest that bidirectional coarticulatory effects are found across both syllable and word boundaries. Within and across these boundaries, larger anticipatory effects were found on f0, while the carryover effect on F1 was more robust. Concerning F2, differences between coarticulatory effects were only evident in voiceless and velar contexts.