Lateral articulation of the Spanish trill /r/

Abstract

The Spanish trill /r/ represents a rich area for language acquisition research because of its particular articulatory requirements and its tendency toward variation. Lateral bracing has been documented during production of the canonical apical trill. Some articulatory studies suggest alternate lateral articulations of the Spanish trill, with lateral bracing on one side and vibration on the other, which are not distinguishable from central trills from the acoustic signal [Rivera-Campos and Boyce, “Describing alternative articulations of the Spanish trill /r/ by ultrasound technology,” JASA 133(5)]. With the aim of replicating these findings, the present study uses ultrasound imaging in midsagittal and coronal planes to characterize tongue position and movement during different phonetic variants of /r/ produced by seven speakers (four L2 Spanish learners and three native Spanish speakers). The study will shed light on the frequency of the central and lateral strategies in native Spanish speakers and L2 learners, whether the presence of frication or failure of trilling is connected to the lateral strategy, and will contribute to the general understanding of covert articulatory variants.