The automatic vowel of Cr clusters

Abstract

Two phenomena are reported in the phonemic descriptions of various languages: Some languages tend to create /Cr/ or /rC/ clusters by reducing an intervening unstressed vowel. Other languages tend to dissolve such clusters by lengthening the vocalic transition that occurs between the two segments, this vocalic transition being originally automatic, i.e., due to articulatory and/or aerodynamic constraints. Oscillograms were made to measure the duration of such automatic vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables in Spanish. Pressure records were also made to show the variation in air‐flow during articulation. Perception tests were then performed to assess how clusters form and dissolve when duration of the automatic vowel is systematically shortened or lengthened. Edited utterances were played to native speakers of Spanish who were asked to judge whether they heard a version with a cluster or with no cluster. The likelihood of a stimulus being perceived as a cluster was inversely proportional to the duration of the automatic vowel. However, the perceived cluster was not so readily dissolved before following full vowels /a/ or /o/.