Lower pharyngeal wall coarticulation in VCV syllables.

Speech movements of the lower pharyngeal wall were recorded in two subjects using pulsed-echo ultrasound. The focus of the study was the pattern of coarticulation of pharyngeal wall movements. Using nonsense utterances as test material, both anticipatory and carryover coarticulatory effects were observed. The identity of the final vowel in VCV sequences affected the kinematic characteristics of the initial VC transition. Both the amplitude and the duration of the movement between the initial vowel and the consonant were greater when the final vowel was /u/ rather than /a/. Similarly, the initial vowel affected the kinematic characteristics of the final CV transition. The amplitude of the movement from the consonant to the final vowel was greater with the initial vowel /u/ as opposed to /a/. The coarticulatory patterns observed in this study are similar to those previously reported for the tongue dorsum and upper pharynx [Parush et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 74, 1115-1125 (1983); Parush and Ostry, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 80, 749-756 (1986)].