Lingual kinematics and coarticulation for alveolopalatal and velar consonants in Catalan

Vertical lingual movement data for the alveolopalatal consonants /ʃ/ and /ɲ/ and for the dorsovelar consonant /k/ in Catalan /aCa/ sequences produced by three speakers reveal that the tongue body travels a smaller distance at a slower speed and in a longer time during the lowering period extending from the consonant into the following vowel (CV) than during the rising period extending from the preceding vowel into the consonant (VC). For two speakers, two-phase trajectories characterized by two successive velocity peaks occur more frequently during the former period than during the latter, whether associated with tongue blade and dorsum (for alveolopalatals) or with the tongue dorsum articulator alone (for velars). Greater tongue dorsum involvement for /ɲ/ and /k/ than for /ʃ/ accounts for a different kinematic relationship between the four articulatory phases. The lingual gesture for alveolopalatals and, less so, that for velars may exert more prominent spatial and temporal effects on V2 than on V1 which is in agreement with the salience of the C-to-V carryover component associated with these consonants according to previous coarticulation studies. These kinematic and coarticulation data may be attributed to tongue dorsum biomechanics to a large extent.