Linguopalatal coarticulation and alveolar-palatal correlations for velarized and non-velarized /l/

Abstract

Acoustic and electropalatographic data are presented involving palatal and alveolar contact coarticulation and alveolar-palatal contact correlations for Catalan velarized /l/ (5 speakers) and German non-velarized /l/ (4 speakers) in different vowel environments. Coarticulatory effects and significant alveolar-palatal correlations for German exceed those for Catalan which is consistent with the tongue body being more constrained for the velarized than the non-velarized realization. In comparison to non-velarized /l/, active predorsum lowering for velarized /l/ largely prevents dorsopalatal coarticulation with /i/ and tongue front –tongue dorsum coupling effects from occurring. Vowel-dependent variations in tongue dorsum position result in closure fronting differences for speakers of both languages which suggests that they use coordination mechanisms between the tongue tip and the tongue dorsum; however, not all speakers change closure location across vowel contexts.