Palatalization of /s/ in American English: when is a /š/ not a /š/?

Abstract

Acoustic measurement show that when /s/ or /z/ are followed by the palatal fricative /š/, they are often produced as /š/ or /ž/ in casual speech, even when the palatal segment is on the other side of a word boundary. Thus “gas shortage” can be rendered [gæššɔrɾəǰ]. A similar phenomenon might be expected in a different palatalizing environment, when word‐final /s/ or /z/ are followed by the palatal glide /y/, as in “miss you” or “use your”. From the same corpus and using the same measurement procedures reported earlier [S. Shattuck‐Hufnagel, V. W. Zue, and J. Bernstein, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 64, S92(A) (1978)], we examined the acoustic consequences of this second palatalization process. Our measurements suggest that: (a) palatalization of word‐final /s, z/ preceding a /y/ occurs quite frequently; (b) when such palatalization occurs, it results in acoustic characteristics which are uniform across the entire segment, with no residual alveolar fricative; and (c) for some speakers, the palatalization process results in acoustic properties significantly different from /š/ suggesting an articulatory target somewhere between the /s/ and /š/ in American English. [Work supported by N1NCDS.]