WHAT ROLE DOES THE PALATE PLAY IN SPEECH MOTOR CONTROL? INSIGHTS FROM TONGUE KINEMATICS FOR GERMAN ALVEOLAR OBSTRUENTS

Abstract

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.