Vowel segments in consonantal contexts: a spectral study of coarticulation. Part I

Abstract: Five speakers read a list of 120 CVC words, containing all possible combinations of six initial consonants, four vowels, and five final consonants, and a story in which those words occurred as stressed syllables. Each speaker did this five times. For each speaker and for each of the two conditions (isolated words and text words) the average trajectory in the spectral vowel space was calculated of every CV- and VC-transition, and of the stationary part of the vowel. With a few exceptions, the stationary part of the vowel was found not to vary systematically with consonantal context, but the CV- and, to a lesser extent, the VC-transitions turned out to combine into a pattern that was quite consistent over speakers and conditions. Extrapolation of these transitions resulted in estimated consonant locus areas in the vowel space for the majority of consonants investigated.