Articulatory correlates of stress and speaking rate in Swedish VCV utterances

Articulatory activity underlying changes in stress and speaking rate was studied by means of x-ray cinefilm and acoustic speech records. Two Swedish subjects produced vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) utterances under controlled rate-stress conditions. The vowels were tense (i a u), and the consonants were the voiceless stops, notably (p). The spectral characteristics of the vowels were not significantly influenced by changes in the speaking rate. They were, however, significantly emphasized under stress. At the articulatory level, stressed vowels displayed narrower oral tract constrictions than unstressed vowels at the two speaking rates studied. At the faster speaking rate, vowel- and consonant-related gestures were coproduced to a greater extent than at the slower rate. The data, failing to produce evidence for an "undershoot" mechanism, support the view that dialect-specific correlates of stress are actively safeguarded by means of articulatory reorganization.