Speech Science Forum -- Emily Gorman

This talk explores the relationship between spatial and temporal variation in English laterals in order to test predictions of the coupled oscillator model of speech timing. Using electro-magnetic articulography data, I perform spatial and temporal analyses on laterals from two British English dialects which differ in degree of /l/ darkening, Standard Southern British English, and Lancashire/Manchester English. This design allows for a systematic, within language exploration of the effects of /l/ darkening on speech timing. Results find laterals to differ spatially across measures of /l/ cluster timing, but not temporally in measures of /l/ cluster timing. In this way, temporal stability in /l/ is found to be invariant to spatial differences. Further analyses reveal systematic differences in the velocity of the tongue body gesture of /l/ to facilitate this pattern. implications of these results are discussed within the framework of Articulatory Phonology and the coupled oscillator model of speech timing. Specifically, results support a feedforward model, whereby coupling relations are invariant to spatial properties.

zoom link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/92052680901