An x-ray investigation of pharyngeal constriction in American English schwa.
A study of early X-ray footage of 4 subjects was conducted to test the prediction that there may be a midpharyngeal constriction in American English schwa. Results show a significant constriction during schwa relative to lingual rest position for all 4 speakers. This evidence contradicts views of American English schwa as having no articulatory target or place features, as well as those which have suggested a neutral target throughout the vocal tract. These findings, however, support claims connecting English schwa with reduced /r/. In addition to the basic effect 1 subject showed a bimodal pattern in schwa, which may indicate that this subject has distinct schwas in lexical vs. functional words, a property that has also been observed with respect to /r/ in r-vocalizing dialects.
Gick
Bryan
B
Interdisciplinary Speech Reasearch Laboratory, Department of Linguistics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. gick@interchange.ubc.ca
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010614:Pharynx / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D011859:Radiography; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D013068:Speech Production Measurement