Philip Hoole
Inst. fuer Phon. und Sprachliche Kommnikation, Munich Univ., Schellingstr. 3, D-80799 Munich, Germany
K. G. Munhall
Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON, Canada
The sequence of positions (path) that an articulator follows during movement can reveal much about its planning and control processes. In this presentation data is described that show the paths of tongue dorsum movements during velar consonant production. Velar consonants often exhibit forward movement of the tongue during the closure phase, producing an elliptical path in VCV sequences. Data were collected to examine some of the influences on these paths. Specifically, whether overpressure behind the constriction contributes to the movement pattern was tested. Tongue movements for three subjects were recorded using electromagnetic articulography. The subjects produced /VgV/ sequences with egressive and ingressive airstream. In addition, speaking volume was manipulated. Two of the subjects showed consistent effects of airstream direction. Ingressive tokens showed reduction or elimination of forward tongue movement in the consonant. The third speaker was not a naive speaker and had practiced extensively before the recordings. He showed negligible airstream influences, suggesting that the effects could be overridden. All three subjects showed effects of speaking volume on the tongue path. The data suggest that the motor system may take advantage of the airstream forces to produce a particular path, however the overpressure is not solely responsible for the elliptical path.