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Abstract:
This study investigates the temporal coordination of
articulatory and glottal motions in voiceless consonants in
Japanese. The relative timing between oral constriction and
glottal opening are investigated for voiceless stop and fricative
consonants. Each consonant is uttered as the single and geminate
forms, and the dependence of the relative timing on consonant
type and gemination is analyzed. In Japanese, a geminate
consonant consists of a consonant and a sokuon that precedes it.
The sokuon is uttered for one mora duration as a period of
silence in a stop and as a period of noise in a fricative. The
experimental data were collected using EMA (electro-magnetic
articulograph) and PGG (photoglottography) techniques. The
results showed that the relative timing between glottal opening
and oral constriction was affected by the type of the consonants.
In single consonants, the glottal opening peak occurred earlier
for the fricative than for stops. In geminate consonants, the
timing of the glottal opening peak was similar for stop and
fricative consonants, but the closing motion of glottis for stops
occurred earlier. Furthermore, the results showed that the effect
of the gemination on the relative timing was affected by the type
of the consonants. In fricative production, the oral-glottal
relative timing for single and geminate consonants was similar.
The glottal opening peak occurred consistently before the
midpoint of the oral constriction interval for single and
geminate fricatives. In addition, the relative timing for the
Japanese subject showed a similar tendency to those of the
English subjects reported thus far. On the other hand, in stop
production, the temporal interval from the onset of oral closure
to glottal opening peak for single and geminate consonants was
similar. For single stops, the glottal opening peak occurred
consistently before the release of the oral closure. This is in
distinct contrast with that of the American English stop
consonant, where the glottal opening peak is synchronized with
the release of the oral closure. For geminate stops, the glottal
opening peak occurred consistently before the midpoint of the
oral closure interval. This result emphasizes the tendency that
the glottal opening peak occurred before the release of the oral
closure in Japanese stop consonant production.
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