Ultrasound investigation of tongue movements in syllables with different onset structure

Abstract

This study is an attempt to describe syllables with different onset structure not only in terms of durational changes but also in terms of the distance the tongue travels over a syllable by using ultrasound and to compare the ratio between the two parameters, expressed as speed. Results indicate that both measures increase with an increasing number of onset segments but not to the same degree for all targets. Therefore speed was not constant over all of them. Additionally, type of onset constituent greatly influenced the three parameters and there were large between-speaker similarities in case of durational changes.