Typology of mixing articulatory gestures in phonetics and phonology

Abstract

The present paper analyzes the typology of cases of gestural blending in sequences of homorganic phonetic segments and indicates how gestural blending mechanisms differ from other processes of intersegmental adaptation commonly referred to as coarticulation and assimilation. The article establishes a distinction between three gestural blending types: by static intermediation, by dynamic intermediation, and by articulatory overlap. These mechanisms are analyzed with lingual configuration and linguopalatal contact data for sequences of lingual consonants from Catalan and other languages. An interpretation of gestural blending mechanisms is proposed which is based on notions such as the degree of articulatory adaptability of different lingual regions and the manner of articulation requirements for the consonants involved.