Token‐to‐token variation of tongue‐body vowel targets: The effect of coarticulation

Abstract

Variation of vowel targets for a midsagittal point on the tongue body of a single speaker of American English was examined. The subject pronounced multiple repetitions of nonsense utterances of the form /bV(C)Vbʌ/, in which the vowels were /i/, /u/, /a/ and the consonant, when present, was /b/ or /h/. Stress was placed on the second syllable. Movements of a single point on the middle of the tongue‐body dorsum were transduced with a new alternating magnetic field movement transducer system. For each vowel, a scatter plot was generated of “target” positions (x,y coordinates) at the moment of minimum tangential velocity. In general, these scatter plots are elongated. When the vowels in the first and second syllables are the same, the scatter in target position is relatively tighter and less elongated than when the vowels are different. When the vowels in the two syllables are different, the long axis passing through the scatter for one vowel is oriented in the direction of the target for the other vowel, providing a “statistically based” demonstration of context dependence of articulatory targets. [Work supported by NIH Grant No. NS04332.]