Lingual Articulation and Coarticulation for Catalan Consonants and Vowels: An Ultrasound Study

The study investigates the tongue position and coarticulatory characteristics of a subset of Catalan consonants and vowels using ultrasound.

Ultrasound data were recorded and analyzed for the Catalan front lingual consonants /t, d, n, l, ɾ, s, r, ʎ, ɲ, ʃ/ and vowels /i, e, a, o, u/ in symmetrical VCV sequences produced by 5 adult Catalan speakers.

Among other aspects, data show more tongue body fronting for palatal consonants and, among dentals and alveolars, for laminals than for apicals; the manner of articulation demands account for considerable tongue body retraction and predorsum lowering during the trill /r/ and for some tongue body retraction during /l/ next to front vowels. Vowel and consonant coarticulation occurs mostly in lingual regions which are not primarily involved in closure or constriction formation. Differences in the relative prominence of the anticipatory and carryover consonant-to-vowel effects in tongue body position were found to hold clearly for /r/ in all vowel contexts and for palatal consonants next to /a, o, u/.

Place-dependent and manner-dependent articulatory characteristics for consonants and vowels account for the most relevant coarticulatory effects and may contribute to explain several sound change patterns.