What role does the palate play in speech motor control? Insights from tongue kinematics for German alveolar obstruents

Susanne Fuchs (1) , Pascal Perrier (2) , Christian Geng (1) , Christine Mooshammer (3)

1 ZAS - Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft [Berlin]
2 ICP - Institut de la communication parlée
3 IPDS - Institute of Phonetics and Digital Signal Processing

By means of simultaneous EMMA and EPG recordings, we investigated tongue tip kinematics and tongue palate contact patterns for four German speakers in order to compare production strategies of alveolar stops with fricatives. For alveolar stops versus fricatives, two different control strategies were hypothesized: a target above the contact location for alveolar stops resulting in a collision of the tongue tip at the palate as opposed to a precise positioning of the tongue at the lateral margins at the palate for alveolar fricatives. Additionally, we suspected differences between stops and fricatives with respect to anterior and lateral palate contacts and their influence on tongue kinematics. Results of this study confirmed two different control strategies for alveolar stops and fricatives by means of significant differences in movement amplitude, velocity, and duration of the closing gesture, the amplitude of deceleration peaks, tongue tip movement during acoustically defined closure and constriction, and maximal anterior contact during closure. Additionally, results for speaker dependent mechanisms were related to the subject's coronal palatal shape.

Mots clés: Speech motor control; Tongue-palate interaction; Alveolar obstruents; Speech production

Domaines: Linguistique; Linguistique

Susanne Fuchs, Pascal Perrier, Christian Geng, Christine Mooshammer. What role does the palate play in speech motor control? Insights from tongue kinematics for German alveolar obstruents. Jonathan Harrington & Marija Tabain. Speech Production: Models, Phonetic Processes, and Techniques, Psychology Press: New-York, USA, pp.149-164, 2006, Macquarie Monographs in Cognitive Science. ⟨hal-00371434⟩