The gestural and temporal organization of assimilation

Bulgarian apico-alveolar stops and Swedish dorsovelar stops are palatalized when adjacent to front vowels. An X-ray motion film study of these assimilations (part of an ongoing investigation of the temporal organisation of coarticulation and assimilation) is presented. Two issues are examined, extrinsic vs intrinsic production of assimilation and feature spreading vs. coproduction. The articulator gestures involved in an assimilation are initiated earlier, or are held longer, than in unassimilated situations. This revision of gesture timing in relation to adjacent activity indicates that assimilation is preplanned and does not reflect coarticulation or vocal tract biodynamics. Gestural coordination for these examples is better described as coproduction than feature spreading. Poster presentatio