An Articulatory and Acoustic Study of the European Portuguese /l/

In this paper, MRI images and acoustic data for several speakers of European Portuguese (EP) were utilized in order to investigate articulatory and acoustic characteristics of /l/. Syllabic position differences and effects of the surrounding vowels were further evaluated. In general, the EP /l/ showed no substantial articulatory or acoustic differences at word edges, with low F2 frequencies and small pharyngeal/velar areas due to tongueroot retraction and/or tongue dorsum raising. The amount of vocalic effect on both the articulatory and acoustic data was speaker-dependent.

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