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Cross-linguistic differences in articulatory timing lag in consonant cluster perception
Abstract
Cross-language research on consonant cluster production has shown that consonant clusters in different languages are produced with different degrees of articulatory timing lags. The present study examines perceptual sensitivity to these cross-linguistic timing differences in consonant clusters. Native German listeners were tested on an AXB similarity judgment test using stimuli including consonant clusters produced by German and Georgian speakers. (German consonant clusters are produced with relatively shorter lag between two consonants than Georgian ones.) Stimuli were /bla, gla, gna/ syllables recorded along with articulatory (EMA) data. Short lag German tokens and long lag Georgian tokens were selected as A and B, with Xs of varying degrees of lag chosen from either Georgian or German recordings. Results showed that German listeners are sensitive to the cross-linguistic differences in articulatory timing lag: when the timing lag of X was closer to A, participants were more likely to choose A. Moreover, listeners’ sensitivity was influenced by the types of clusters: listeners were more sensitive in /bla/ than they were in /gla/ and in /gna/. The effects on the similarity judgment of different measures of articulatory lag, of vocalic releases produced within clusters, and of other sub-phonemic details were investigated. Overall, the results show that the lag differences are salient to German listeners while German and Georgian clusters can differ in a number of respects.
... Rather than being characterised as a binary distinction of open or close, the transition between consonants in a cluster seems to be gradual. There is evidence from other languages as well that there is cross-linguistic variation in the way that the individual gestures of a cluster sequence are phased, and that consonant clusters are produced with different degrees of articulatory timing lags in different languages (Kwon & Chitoran, 2016). As Davidson (2005) reports, these differences result from language specific detail concerning gestural coordination (see also Browman & Goldstein, 1992b). ...
Young children simplify word initial consonant clusters by omitting or substituting one (or both) of the elements. Vocalic insertion, coalescence and metathesis are said to be used more seldom (McLeod, van Doorn & Reed, 2001). Data from Norwegian children, however, have shown vocalic insertion to be more frequently used (Simonsen, 1990; Simonsen, Garmann & Kristoffersen, 2019). To investigate the extent to which children use this strategy to differing degrees depending on the ambient language, we analysed word initial cluster production acoustically in nine Norwegian and nine English speaking children aged 2;6–6 years, and eight adults, four from each language. The results showed that Norwegian-speaking children produce significantly more instances of vocalic insertions than English-speaking children do. The same pattern is found in Norwegian- versus English-speaking adults. We argue that this cross-linguistic difference is an example of the influence of prosodic-phonetic biases in language-specific developmental paths in the acquisition of speech.
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