Articulatory movements in VCV sequences

The purpose of this experiment was to study both the timing and positional properties of articulatory movements in VCV utterances. Conventional cinefluorographic techniques were used to track the movements of the upper lip, lower lip, jaw, tongue tip, and tongue body of two speakers who read randomized lists of VCV utterances containing the vowels /i,a,u/ and the consonants /p,t,k/, in all possible combinations. Results showed that the timing of articulatory movements in a VCV sequence are constrained by the intervocalic consonant, even if the gesture for the consonant is not a contradictory one. Anticipatory movements toward the second vowel always begin during the closure period of the intervocalic consonant. The appearance of carry over coarticulation effects depends on the phonetic identity of the particular segment or degree of involvement of the articulator. Carry over effects, like anticipatory effects, did not extend beyond an immediately adjacent segment. These findings suggest that the rules governing the segmental input to a speech string might be simpler than present models suggest.