Abstract
This study presents acoustic and articulatory (EMA) data for the high rounded central vowel at different prosodic boundaries. Data are from three speakers of Australian English. Overall, there is very little variability in production of this vowel according to prosodic boundary, with the two female speakers showing slightly more variability than the male speaker. In particular, variability in F2 is limited, suggesting that the vowel is truly central and cannot be considered a back vowel phonologically. The present results are compared with results presented in Tabain & Perrier from three French speakers producing the high back rounded vowel /u/. The differences in articulatory strategies and in acoustic variability are discussed with respect to the vowel inventory of each language. It is speculated that the back vowel /u:/ has become centralized in several dialects of English due to ease of articulation considerations, as part of a strategy to maintain formant cues indicative of a high rounded vowel.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call