City Research Online

Abstract

This paper examines the timing of anticipatory nasalization in French and relates it to individual speakers’ realizations of phonologically nasal vowels. We explore the possibility that coarticulation in VN sequences is more extensive for speakers who only differentiate nasal and oral vowels to a limited extent based on nasality. Nasal intensity was measured in a time window preceding a nasal consonant or oral control segment (VN/VC) as well as on speakers’ nasal and oral vowels (Ṽ/V). The results suggest that speakers for whom Ṽ and V differ less in nasality display earlier and more variable coarticulatory timing in VN sequences. Possibly, in speakers for whom nasality is less informative as a cue for the V/Ṽ contrast, anticipatory nasalization is less likely to mask said contrast and thus coarticulation can be more extensive and variable. The results contribute to our understanding of how speaker-specific manifestations of phonological contrast shape coarticulatory behavior.

Publication Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information:	This in an open access publication licensed by the authors of papers under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license
Publisher Keywords:	coarticulation, nasalization, speaker variability, contrast, French
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics R Medicine > RC Internal medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences School of Health & Medical Sciences > Language & Communication Science
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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