Articulation of [i]'s

The articulation of the palatal vowel [i] in various phonetic environments was studied in one speaker of English and one speaker of Japanese using the technique of dynamic contact palatography. The utterances examined were of the form C1V1C2V2, where V1 or V2 was [i][u] or [a] and the other vowel always [i]. C2 was any of a variety of consonants proper to the languages involved. Preliminary results suggest that the articulation of [i] is influenced in complex ways by both consonantal and vocalic environment. For example, “front” consonants such as [n] serve to preserve the canonical contact pattern for [i] whereas “back” consonants such as [k] permit greater deviation from the canonical form due to coarticulation with adjacent vowels. Other things being equal, [i] seems to dominate in the coarticulation between vowels in the speech of the Japanese speaker. A momentary reduction in the extent of palatal contact during the consonant in an [ipi] utterance was noted. This is apparently due to passive enlargement of the oral cavity caused by impinging oral pressure. [Work supported by NSF.]