Place vs. Stricture in Spanish Nasal Assimilation

In this paper we investigate patterns of place and stricture assimilation of Argentine Spanish nasals in order to test two competing models of phonological representations of place and stricture features (or tract variables). Electropalatographic (EPG) data from four speakers of Buenos Aires Spanish reveal that nasal assimilation before coronals within words (e.g. in /kanta/, /kansa/, /anʧa/) involves changes in both place and stricture. While place assimilation is found to be overwhelmingly obligatory and categorical, stricture assimilation is optional and gradient, seemingly dependent on speaking rate and/or style. These results partly support the models that assume dependency between place and stricture features, while pointing to some problems with the traditional feature geometric and gestural representations. Building on the current results, we provide a preliminary analysis of Spanish nasal assimilation that employs modified gestural representations manipulated by faithfulness and gestural coordination constraints.