ARTICULATORY PATHS FOR SOME FRICATIVES IN CONNECTED SPEECH
Articulatory paths have been analysed for the fricative [s] produced by a woman speaker of General American English in connected speech and also in phonetically controlled speech-like sequences at a slower speech rate. Aerodynamically derived traces indicating the acoustically relevant parameter of cross-section area of the constricted region of the vocal tract suggested that, contrary to related data for the movements of the solid structures, some portions of the traces for this vocal tract indicator had the same path shape across some different vowel contexts and across different speech styles. In the connected speech, the whole cross-section area path seemed to be invariant across different stressed vowel contexts. The acoustic pattern features associated with the invariant portions of vocal tract articulation, in combination with appropriate respiratory and laryngeal articulations, are discussed.
articulatory paths fricatives connected speech aerodynamics methods