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Syllable Position Effects And Gestural Organization: Evidence From Russian, Alexei Kochetov

Alexei Kochetov

Previous articulatory studies have shown that English syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants exhibit different patterns of gestural organization. These differences – syllable position effects – are manifested primarily in the relative timing and magnitude of gestures. In general, syllable-initial consonants show more stable patterns of coordination and “tighter” articu-latory constrictions than the same consonants in syllable-final position. This paper addresses the question of whether syllable position effects hold for other languages by examining the articulatory properties of some Rus-sian syllable-initial and syllable final consonants: the palatal glide /j/ and labial stops /pj/ and /p/. In general, the articulometer (EMMA) results con-firm …