COARTICULATION IN CONTRASTIVE RUSSIAN STOP SEQUENCES

Lisa Davidson
New York University

ID 1085
[full paper]

The articulation of stop-stop #CC, C#C, and #CəC by native Russian speakers is examined using ultrasound imaging. Three main issues are addressed: whether syllable structure affects coordination of consonant sequences, whether coarticulatory resistance interacts with syllable structure, and whether second language learners could transfer their ability to produce C#C sequences to #CC sequences. The tongue shape trajectories suggest that C#C and #CC coarticulation and timing are not interchangeable, and that syllable structure does interact with coarticulatory resistance. In some cases, native Russian #CC articulation is more similar to #CəC than to C#C, suggesting that learning the timing and coarticulation of these sequences may be a challenge for L2 acquisition.

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