Anders Lofqvist
Vincent L. Gracco
Haskins Labs., 270 Crown St., New Haven, CT 06511-6695
Lip closing movements for bilabial stops have been reported to be faster and of shorter duration for voiceless than for voiced stops. The experimental evidence is conflicting, however, and recordings have mostly been limited to lip and jaw movements in a single dimension. The present study examines articulatory kinematics in /aCV/ sequences, where the consonant is one of the set /p,b,t,d,k,g/ and the second vowel one of /i,a,u/. A magnetometer system was used to track vertical and horizontal movements of receivers placed on the lips and the jaw, and on four points on the tongue. Tangential velocity was used to define movement onsets and offsets. Movement amplitude was calculated as the path of the receiver from movement onset to offset. Preliminary results from two subjects suggest the possibility that the effects of consonant voicing on movement kinematics vary for different articulators. Tongue body movements towards consonantal closure had consistently higher velocity, larger amplitude and longer duration for voiced than for voiceless velar stops. Tongue tip and lip and jaw closing movements showed less robust differences between voiced and voiceless alveolar and labial stops. [Work supported by NIH.]