Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-xxrs7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T19:34:06.823Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

19 - Lip aperture and consonant releases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2010

Get access

Summary

Introduction

The focus of this paper is, simply put, how the mouth is opened during vowels in CV (sub)syllables. Such a question is intimately related to the nature both of consonant releases and of lip control (as in rounding). The function of controlling the lips for vowels might be to ensure that the mouth is open during the vowel, so that there will be radiated sound. If this is the case, then actively controlled consonant-release movements, which would serve the same purpose, might not be necessary; the mouth might open sufficiently, given the lip control, if the consonant is simply turned off without actively moving away from its position of closure.

Much previous work has viewed the relation between consonants and vowels as a linear phenomenon. In a CV syllable or subsyllable, the consonant is considered to occur first, followed by the transition from the consonant into the vowel, and finally the vowel. In the acoustic instantiation of such a perspective, the transition from consonant to vowel often consists of two parts, at least for plosives: a burst (plus any aspiration) followed by formant transitions (e.g. Cooper et al. 1952; Fant 1973). The importance of the acoustic properties of the release for characterizing stop consonants has been emphasized by authors such as Stevens and Blumstein (1981).

However, it is in fact not possible to separate consonantal and vocalic information temporally. As emphasized by Liberman et al. (1967), both the burst and the formant transitions are affected by both the vowel and the consonant, due to the overlapping articulations involved. Articulatorily, consonants and vowels are not linearly organized.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×