The articulatory and acoustic impact of Scottish English /r/ on the preceding vowel-onset

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the use of smoothing spline ANOVA and T tests to analyze whether the influence of syllable final consonants on the preceding vowel differs for articulation and acoustics. The onset of vowels either followed by phrase-final /r/ or by phrase-initial /r/ is compared for two Scottish English speakers. To measure articulatory differences of opposing vowel pairs, smoothing splines of midsagittal tongue shape recorded via ultrasound imaging are compared. For the acoustic data, differences of the first two formant frequencies at the onset are tested. The results confirm that there is no 1:1 mapping between articulation and acoustics. Copyright 2009 ISCA.