Browsing by Person "Fuchs, Suzanne"

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Articulatory correlates of the voicing contrast in alveolar obstruent production in German.
(ZASPiL Nr. 41. Berlin, Germany, Zentrum f_r Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Typologie und Universalienforschung, 2005) Fuchs, Suzanne
This work investigates laryngeal and supralaryngeal correlates of the voicing contrast in alveolar obstruent production in German. It further studies laryngealoral co-ordination observed for such productions. Three different positions of the obstruents are taken into account: the stressed, syllable initial position, the post-stressed intervocalic position, and the post-stressed word final position. For the latter the phonological rule of final devoicing applies in German. The different positions are chosen in order to study the following hypotheses: 1. The presence/absence of glottal opening is not a consistent correlate of the voicing contrast in German. 2. Supralaryngeal correlates are also involved in the contrast. 3. Supralaryngeal correlates can compensate for the lack of distinction in laryngeal adjustment. Including the word final position is motivated by the question whether neutralisation in word final position would be complete or whether some articulatory residue of the contrast can be found. Two experiments are carried out. The first experiment investigates glottal abduction in co-ordination with tongue-palate contact patterns by means of simultaneous recordings of transillumination, fiberoptic films and Electropalatography (EPG). The second experiment focuses on supralaryngeal correlates of alveolar stops studied by means of Electromagnetic Articulography (EMA) simultaneously with EPG. Three German native speakers participated in both recordings. Results of this study provide evidence that the first hypothesis holds true for alveolar stops when different positions are taken into account. In fricative production it is also confirmed since voiceless and voiced fricatives are most of the time realised with glottal abduction. Additionally, supralaryngeal correlates are involved in the voicing contrast under two perspectives. First, laryngeal and supralaryngeal movements are well synchronised in voiceless obstruent production, particularly in the stressed position. Second, supralaryngeal correlates occur especially in the post-stressed intervocalic position. Results are discussed with respect to the phonetics-phonology interface, to the role of timing and its possible control, to the interarticulatory co-ordination, and to stress as 'localised hyperarticulation'.
Devoicing of word-initial stops: A consequence of the following vowel.
(2003) Pape, D.; Mooshammer, Christine; Hoole, Phil; Fuchs, Suzanne
ABSTRACT: The aim of the current study is to investigate the contextual conditions of devoicing of phonologically voiced stops. Therefore articulatory and acoustical data of four male speakers were recorded by means of EMMA and EPG. Devoicing was observed more frequently for the velar stops than for the bilabials. The highest occurrence of devoicing was observed when the voiced stop was followed by a low or mid vowel. To test whether articulatory positions are affected by the identity of the following vowel ANOVAs were computed. All subjects showed significant effects on positional data varying with place of articulation of the stop. Percentage of devoicing was significantly correlated with vertical and horizontal tongue positions for the velar and with the vertical jaw position for both stops. Stepwise regression models were computed to achieve an objective measure for the relevance of the measured parameters. We assume that in German movement economy, i.e. coarticulation, is more important than the maintenance of voicing during the closure, which is in agreement with the view that the voicing distinction in German is primarily produced by a longer VOT for the voiceless stops.
WHAT ROLE DOES THE PALATE PLAY IN SPEECH MOTOR CONTROL? INSIGHTS FROM TONGUE KINEMATICS FOR GERMAN ALVEOLAR OBSTRUENTS
(2003) Fuchs, Suzanne; Perrier, Pascal; Geng, Christian; Mooshammer, Christine
ABSTRACT: The tongue moves in a narrow space which influences the speech planning process and affects the kinematic properties of the movement. In order to study the possible role of tongue-palate interaction we investigated tongue tip movement together with tonguepalatal contact patterns by means of simultaneous EMA and EPG recordings. Articulatory data for four German speakers were analyzed. Speech material consisted of VC and VC@ sequences with C being /t/ or /s/ and V being stressed tense /a/ or /u/. The relation between the kinematics of the tongue tip closing gesture and changes in tongue-palatal contact patterns in the anterior, posterior and lateral region were studied. Results for /t/ show a large movement amplitude and a short closing gesture duration whereas in /s/ production the movement amplitude is smaller and the duration longer than in /t/. We conclude that in /t/ the tongue tip hits the palate and this impact stops the movement. In /s/ production we suppose that a precise positioning of the tongue tip is achieved. Speaker dependent tongue-palatal contact patterns can be explained in terms of differences in the palatal shape.