A Preliminary Epg Study of Stop Consonants in Arrernte

The Australian Aboriginal language Arrernte has four coronal consonants in the stop, nasal and lateral series. This paper presents EPG data for the four coronal stops of Arrernte in inter-vocalic context for one female speaker of the language. Results show comparatively little variability in the laminal articulations, and comparatively greater variability in the apical articulations. An interesting finding suggests that a retroflex harmony may exist in the language, whereby a retroflex consonant later in the word may cause a previous alveolar consonant to harmonize.