A comparison of acoustic and articulatory parameters for the GOOSE vowel across British Isles Englishes.

This study quantifies vocalic variation that cannot be measured from the acoustic signal alone and develops methods of standardisation and measurement of articulatory parameters for vowels. Articulatory-acoustic variation in the GOOSE vowel was measured across 3 regional accents of the British Isles using a total of 18 speakers from the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, and England, recorded with synchronous ultrasound tongue imaging, lip camera, and audio. Single co-temporal measures were taken of tongue-body height and backness, lip protrusion, F1, and F2.

The role of gesture delay in coda /r/ weakening: An articulatory, auditory and acoustic study.

The cross-linguistic tendency of coda consonants to weaken, vocalize, or be deleted is shown to have a phonetic basis, resulting from gesture reduction, or variation in gesture timing. This study investigates the effects of the timing of the anterior tongue gesture for coda /r/ on acoustics and perceived strength of rhoticity, making use of two sociolects of Central Scotland (working- and middle-class) where coda /r/ is weakening and strengthening, respectively. Previous articulatory analysis revealed a strong tendency for these sociolects to use different coda /r/ tongue configurations-working- and middle-class speakers tend to use tip/front raised and bunched variants, respectively; however, this finding does not explain working-class /r/ weakening.