Coarticulatory dynamics in Greek disyllables produced by young adults with and without hearing loss

Hearing loss affects both speech perception and production with detrimental effects on various speech characteristics including coarticulatory dynamics. The aim of the present study is to explore consonant-to-vowel (C-to-V) and vowel-to-vowel (V-to-V) coarticulation in magnitude, direction and temporal extent in the speech of young adult male and female speakers of Greek with normal hearing (NH) and hearing impairment (HI). Nine intelligible speakers with profound HI, using conventional hearing aids, and five speakers with NH produced /pV₁CV₂/ disyllables, with the point vowels /i, a, u/ and the consonants /p, t, s/, stressed either on the first or the second syllable. Formant frequencies F1 and F2 were measured in order to examine C-to-V effects at vowel midpoint and V-to-V effects at vowel onset, midpoint and offset. The acoustic and statistical analyses revealed similarities but also significant differences regarding coarticulatory patterns of the two groups. Interestingly, prevalence of anticipatory coarticulation effects in alveolar contexts was observed for speakers with HI. Findings are interpreted on account of possible differences in articulation strategies between the two groups and with reference to current coarticulatory models.