Articulatory Features Influencing Regressive Place Assimilation in German

Within the framework of current phonological theories the typological patterns of regressive place assimilation are treated as the consequence of interactions among constraints that have acoustical and perceptual teleologies. Little is known, however, about the articulatory patterns that underlie the typology of regressive place assimilation. Our current EMA study aims to investigate these patterns. Specifically, the timing and magnitude of tongue tip, lower lip, and tongue back movements of C1C2 productions across word boundaries in German were studied. Data of one subject are reported here. The following articulatory factors were manipulated: manner of articulation of C1, with C1 being either /n/ or /t/, and place of articulation of C2, with C2 being either /p/ or /k/. Furthermore, lexical factors such as usage of the first word in the word pair and cooccurrence frequency were tested. The results provide evidence for a greater reduction of tongue tip movements in function words as compared to content words. Reduction of tongue tip movements was particularly likely in function words with /n#k/ clusters. In these items no tongue tip excursion was visible. In addition, this word pair had a high cooccurrence frequency. With regard to C1C2 overlap in alveolar-labial clusters, only manner of articulation of C1 but not word frequency played a role.