Tongue apex activities during alveolar stops

Lateral cineradiograms, taken at a rate of 100 frames per second, were used to investigate tongue apex movements associated with alveolar consonants produced by five American English speakers. Consistent with previous research concerning bilabial stops, the results indicated a tendency for faster apical movements towards voiceless stops than toward voiced stops. On the other hand, tongue speeds during voiced alveolar stops and alveolar taps did not appear to differ significantly. Any tendency for faster speeds to be associated with tap movements appeared to be due to corresponding greater distances moved by the tongue tip. Finally, the amount of stress on vowels preceding or following [d] was not found to be an independent factor for determining tongue tip speeds toward the consonant. Once again, any speed differences seemed predictable on the basis of distance.