A study of electromyographic (EMG) activity and palatal movement is reported. Motion pictures were taken of the nasal surface of the soft palate and EMG recordings from the levator palatini muscle were obtained. Both were analyzed for the relationship of velar height to EMG strength and time. (SC)

Spectral compositions of voiced initial stops reveal that these consonants are longer in intensity than those in medial or final position. In final stops the vocal cords are more closed than they are in initial stops and oscillation is richer. (SC)

Reports on an experiment, conducted on ten children who misarticulated /s/, and designed to survey the effect of consonant context on misarticulation. Suggests that a context-sensitive model of phonetic performance is needed to account for variation in correct /s/ production. (Author/AM)

Revised version of a paper given at the 1972 International Conference on Speech Communication and Processing, Boston, Mass. (DD)

Examines previously published experimental work on rhythm of spoken Spanish to establish whether or not Spanish is a "syllable-timed" language. Analyzes figures from the experiments and concludes that Spanish is neither stress-timed nor syllable-timed, displaying an antirhythmic pattern where each segment has a "standard duration" dependent on its…

This paper examines the distinction between primary and secondary articulations of consonants. It shows that the description and classification of speech sounds should not be based on physical parameters alone. Some essential distinctions reveal themselves only inferentially through the relation of a sound to others in the language system.…

Revised version of a paper given at the 83rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of American, April 18-21, 1972, Buffalo, New York; research supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (DD)

Research supported by the Joint Speech Research Unit. (DD)

Sentences were read by six informants to determine the presence or absence of /n/ in /nth/ sequences. The sentences contained seven different levels of juncture with /nth/ occurring in word final position, intervocalically, and across word boundaries, among other places. Dental coarticulation was not hindered by most junctures. (SC)

The salience of voiced onset time (VOT) as a voicing cue for initial stop-vowel units is examined. VOT duration was altered. Findings did not indicate that changes in VOT duration altered the perception of voicing. Aspiration more than VOT seems to be more important in the detection of voicing. (SC)

Describes studies of voice onset time in Spanish and an acoustic feature termed presence versus absence of an abrupt consonant onset. It is suggested that this feature may be used by the Spanish listener in making a perceptual distinction between voiced and voiceless stop consonants in multiple environments. (Author/KM)

A pneumotachographic investigation of intervocalic /p/, /t/ and /k/ was undertaken to isolate physiological parameters responsible for coarticulatory air-flow phenomena. Airflow was most sensitive during the /k/ closure phase. The dynamics of the closure phase for each place of articulation and their implications for pneumotachography are…

Electromyographic experiments were performed indicating that durational differences between vowels that precede voiced consonants and those that precede voiceless ones are due to a sustention of muscular activity in articulation, which occurs only with vowels preceding voiced consonants. (SC)

The production of word-initial stop consonants /p t k/ and /b d g/ was investigated in the speech of 37 deaf and six normally hearing adolescents. It is argued here that the deaf child does not simply make errors in speaking, but instead realizes sounds in accordance with a deviant phonological system. (Author/TL)