The acoustic counterpart to coarticulation resistance and aggressiveness in locus equation metrics and vowel dispersion

Abstract

In speech articulation, a segment with high coarticulatory resistance in tongue configurations tends to exhibit greater coarticulatory aggressiveness on neighbouring segments. This study examined whether this articulatory relationship can be acoustically captured through locus equations and the magnitude of vowel dispersion. This question was investigated in CV sequences in English where C varies in the degree of articulatory constraints imposed on the tongue dorsum. The results show a tight relationship between locus equation slopes and vowel dispersion, where coarticulatory resistance and aggressiveness appear to be two sides of the same coin in speech acoustics.