An UTI study of alveolar stops in Italian

Abstract

We investigate lingual articulation in alveolar stops produced by 5 native Tuscan Italian speakers and varying for voicing and phonological length. Both constriction location and overall tongue configuration are evaluated. The results suggest uniformity in constriction location of singleton and geminate stops as well as in voiced and voiceless stops. On the contrary, overall tongue configuration shows different patterns for length and voicing. Moreover, the subjects show individual preferences as far as constriction location is concerned. The findings are discussed with reference to cross-linguistic patterns of articulatory variation as a function of changes in duration and glottal activity associated to the production of alveolar stops.