Lasse Bombien und Phil Hoole

Laryngeal-oral coordination in mixed-voicing clusters

Laryngeal-oral coordination was studied in clusters of voiceless fricative or plosive plus /l/ or /r/ by means of video-fiberendoscopy and transillumination. In all cases voice onset time (i.e. the time from release of C1 to onset of voicing) was longer in the clusters compared to the single fricative or plosive controls. However, the coordination patterns leading to this consistent acoustic effect were quite varied, ranging from a passive effect of aerodynamic conditions at release of C1, via shortening of C1 with constant glottal gesture, to enhancement of the glottal gesture. The rhotic clusters showed patterns of active reorganization presumably designed to ensure strong frication noise after release of C1. Links with the characteristic pattern of low overlap in the supraglottal gestures for C1 and C2 in /Cr/-clusters are discussed. For the single consonants the duration of the glottal gesture was quite constant over place of articulation but occlusion duration varied systematically. Accordingly, for both clusters and singletons peak glottal opening did not keep a constant timing relationship to landmarks in the oral occlusion of C1. Given also the differences between /Cr/ and /Cl/ the overall interpretation is that the devoicing gesture is planned with respect to the aerodynamic and communicative demands of the syllable onset as a whole, rather than a specific voiceless segment.