Laryngeal adjustments during American English consonant cluster production

Abstract

The glottal opening gesture and its timing control in clusters of voiceless obstruents was investigated by use of electromyography. Two distinct peaks in the abductor muscle (PCA) activity curve were found for /sk/ sequence when a word boundary intervened. but only one for the same sequence without the boundary. For the geminate combination /ss/ or /kk/, the abductor activity pattern was characterized by one single peak surrounded by gradual slopes, although a word boundary intervened within the cluster. In the case where word final /k/ was followed by word initial /s/ or /sk/, however, the abductor muscle showed one broad continuous but rather small peaked curve during the whole cluster. These results. together with transillumination and fiberoptic data, suggest that each voiceless obstruent characterized by aspiration or frication noise tends to require a single separate opening gesture, while an unaspirated stop in voiceless environment can be produced within the opening gesture attributed to the adjacent aspirated stop or fricative. [Work supported by NINCDS and BRSG.]