| Abstract | An investigation of the role of the mandibular muscles during the production of speech is reported here. Electromyographic (EMG) recordings from superficial and deep masseter, anterior and posterior temporalis, medial pterygoid, superior and inferior lateral pterygoid, and the anterior belly of the digastric muscles were obtained for four speakers of American English. For one of the speakers, mandibular movement was monitored simultaneously with the EMG recordings using a modified thyroumbrometer (Ewan & Krones, 1974). The subjects read lists of nonsense words containing the vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ in VCV combination with the consonants /p/, /t/, /k/ and /f/. the results indicate that the traditional classification of masseter, temporalis and medial pterygoid as jaw elevators, and lateral pterygoid and anterior belly of digastric as jaw depressors is not adequate for describing control of the jaw in speech. |
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