Haskins Publications

Number	164
Year	1974
Drawer	3
Entry Date	06/11/1998
Authors	Gay, T.
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Publication	Journal of Phonetics, 2, 255-266.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0164.pdf
Abstract	The purpose of this experiment was to study the effects of changes in both phonetic context and speaking rate on the movements toward and attainment of target positions for the vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/. Two subjects read lists of nonsense words containing the vowels /i/, /a/ and /u/, in VCV combination with the consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/, at both slow and fast speaking rates. Lateral view X-ray films were recorded along with the acoustical signal. Results showed that during slow speech, the target positions of both /i/ and /u/ remain highly stable across changes in both the preceding and following consonant and vowel. The production of /a/, although not subject to right-to-left effects beyond the following consonant, is sensitive to changes in the consonant, as well as the vowel preceding the consonant. These coarticulation effects, however, are not reflected as such in the acoustical measurements. The production of all three vowels during fast speech is characterized by articulatory undershoot and an upward shift in the frequencies of both the first and second formants. These results are discussed in terms of a target based description of vowels.
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