Abstract
Purpose: The present study explored articulator movement variability during voicing contrast acquisition. The purpose was to examine whether oral articulator movement trajectories associated with the production of voiced/voiceless bilabial phonemes in children became less variable over time. Method: Jaw, lower lip, and upper lip movements were recorded longitudinally in six, 19 month-old children as they began producing the voiceless phoneme /p/. Displacement signals were time and amplitude normalized. The spatiotemporal index (A. Smith, L. Goffman, H. Zelaznik, S. Ying, & C. McGillem, 1995) was computed to examine the variability in movement trajectories across repeated productions of target utterances. Results: Spatiotemporal variability of lip and jaw movements significantly decreased as children began producing the voiceless phoneme /p/. A significant negative correlation between the STI and the length of voice onset time (VOT) was also found in the voiceless productions in 4 of the 6 participants. Conclusions: Oral articulator movement variability is reduced in children across the stabilization of voicing contrast acquisition. Further, the relationship between VOT contrast production and movement variability suggests that a coordinate system between the oral and laryngeal articulators may be refined as children acquire the voicing contrast.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 164-177 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research |
Volume | 52 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1 2009 |
Keywords
- Articulator movement
- Development
- Variability
- Voice onset time
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
- Speech and Hearing