The gestural organization of vowels: a cinefluorographic study of articulator gestures in Greenlandic

Sidney A J Wood

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingPaper in conference proceedingpeer-review

Abstract

Movements of individual articulators are analyzed to elucidate principles of gestural organization in vowels. Procedures for tracking articulator gestures from x-ray motion films, and results obtained on coarticulation in Swedish, Bulgarian, and Greenlandic are reported in Wood [J. Phon. 19, 281–292 (1991); Proc. 3rd Congr. I. C. P. L. A. 191–200, Helsinki (1994); Proc. 13th I. C. Ph. Sc. 1, 392–395, Stockholm (1995); J. Phon. 24, 139–164 (1996); Proc. 4th Speech Prod. Seminar 61–64, Grenoble (1996)]. Tongue body movement was organized as predicted from a spectrographic study of Greenlandic vowels in Wood [Working Papers 4, 58–94, Lund (1971)] and according to the principles reported for English and Arabic in Wood [J. Phon. 7, 25–43 (1979)]. Greenlandic has three vowel phonemes, but the allophonic variation means all four tongue body gestures (palatal, velar, uvular, pharyngeal) are utilized. All articulator gestures needed for a vowel converged on a typical configuration, those arriving earlier being held until all were in position. The configuration was held briefly before the articulators were withdrawn. Coarticulation was organized by queuing oncoming gestures that are antagonistic to current gestures, avoiding conflicts.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationJournal of the Acoustical Society of America
PublisherAcoustical Society of America
Pages2689 (A)-2689 (A)
Volume100
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1996

Publication series

Name
Number4
Volume100
ISSN (Print)0001-4966

Subject classification (UKÄ)

  • General Language Studies and Linguistics

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