A comparison of intra- and inter-syllabic coordination in repetitive speech of Taiwanese and english

This study aims to compare English closed syllables and Taiwanese checkedi syllables regarding both 1) intra-syllabic coordination: The timing relations between onset and coda consonants within the syllable, and 2) intersyllabic coordination: The temporal overlap between hetero-syllabic coda and following onset consonant. Tongue, lip and jaw movements of four speakers of Taiwanese and six speakers of American English were recorded by means of EMMA in a repetition task. Analyses of articulatory data suggest that Taiwanese checked syllables differ from English closed syllable in that: 1) Taiwanese displays much greater consonant-vowel co-articulation within a syllable than English; and 2) greater overlap is observed between heterosyllabic consonants in Taiwanese. These different patterns will be discussed with respect to the gestural composition of coda consonant in Taiwanese and English, as well as the language specific regularities of gestural coordination.