Lip protrusion in sibilant production

Abstract

While anecdotal reports of lip protrusion contributing to sibilant production in a variety of languages exist, little attention has been paid to quantifying its contribution. In the present study, lip position was monitored using a modified SELSPOT optoelectronic tracking system, and location of oral constriction was simultaneously monitored by means of a RION artificial palate. Subjects (speakers of Catalan, English, German, and Italian) produced 50 tokens each of 6 (8) symmetrical VCV utterances, where V ranged over /iau(ü)/ and C over /sš/. As expected, /s/ has a more anterior constriction than /š/, with the constriction for /usu/ being the most anterior; and, there is more lip protrusion for /š/ than for /s/, except for in the /u_u/ context. Across utterance types, the combination of lip protrusion and constriction location is a better predictor of the frequency of a sibilant's centroid than is either parameter alone; within utterance types, lip protrusion and aperture are, in general, better predictors of centroid frequency than is constriction location. [Work supported by NIH Grant NS‐07237.]