Long range coarticulation effects for tongue dorsum contact in VCVCV sequences

The goal of this paper is to achieve a more accurate understanding of the temporal and spatial properties of tongue dorsum activity in running speech. Electropalatographic and acoustical data were collected to measure tongue dorsum coarticulation over time. Coarticulatory effects were analyzed along VC[e{schwa}]CV utterances for articulations differing in degree of tongue dorsum contact, namely, the vowels [i] vs. [a] and the consonants [∫] vs. [t]: the contextual phonemes were all possible combinations of those same consonants and vowels. Results show contrasting mechanisms for anticipatory and carryover coarticulation. Anticipatory effects appear to be more tightly controlled than carryover effects presumably because of phonemic preplanning: accordingly, gestural antagonism in the contextual phonemes affects the two coarticulatory types differently. The data are evaluated in light of theories of coarticulation and speech production models. © 1990.