The book analyzes the articulatory motivation of several adaptation processes (place assimilations, blending, coarticulation) involving consecutive consonants in heterosyllabic consonant sequences within the framework of the degree of articulatory constraint model of coarticulation. It also shows that the homorganic relationship between two heterosyllabic consonants contributes to the implementation of manner assimilations, while heterorganicity as well as sonorancy and voicing in the syllable-onset C2 are key factors in the weakening of the syllable-coda C1. Experimental and descriptive evidence is provided with production, phonological and sound change data from several languages, and more especifically with tongue-to-palate contact and lingual configuration data for Catalan consonant sequences. The book also reviews critically research on the c-center effect in tautosyllabic consonant sequences which has been carried out during the last thirty years.

The book analyzes the articulatory motivation of several adaptation processes (place assimilations, blending, coarticulation) involving consecutive consonants in heterosyllabic consonant sequences within the framework of the degree of articulatory constraint model of coarticulation. It also shows that the homorganic relationship between two heterosyllabic consonants contributes to the implementation of manner assimilations, while heterorganicity as well as sonorancy and voicing in the syllable-onset C2 are key factors in the weakening of the syllable-coda C1. Experimental and descriptive evidence is provided with production, phonological and sound change data from several languages, and more especifically with tongue-to-palate contact and lingual configuration data for Catalan consonant sequences. The book also reviews critically research on the c-center effect in tautosyllabic consonant sequences which has been carried out during the last thirty years.

There is currently a wealth of activity involving the analysis of complex segmental sequences from phonetic, phonological and psycholinguistic perspectives. This volume draws from selected contributions to the conference Consonant Clusters and Structural Complexity held in Munich in August 2008. Consonant sequences, whether occurring within individual lexical items or emerging in running speech at word boundaries, give particularly striking evidence for the temporal complexity of human speech. But contributions also consider the integration of tonal and vocalic elements into syllable structure. The main aim of the volume is to do justice to this complexity by bringing together researchers from a wide range of backgrounds. The book is organized into four main sections entitled ‘Phonology and Typology’, ‘Production: Analysis and Models’, ‘Acquisition’, and ‘Assimilation and reduction in connected speech’.

Abstract: This book presents three experimental studies of sublexical speech processing that aim to answer the question how universal principles of syllabic wellformedness like the Sonority Sequencing Principle, on the one hand, and experience with language-specific phonotactic distributions, on the other hand, influence perception and production of German initial consonant clusters. Effects of consonant cluster frequency and sonority sequencing are compared in a) an experiment of pseudoword identification in noise with native German listeners, b) a parallel experiment with Australian learners of German, and c) an experiment of pseudoword repetition in a tongue twister paradigm. The results of these experiments have implications for the roles of universal vs. language-specific sound sequencing preferences in sublexical processing. The non-native listening experiment moreover allows for a comparison of the roles of native-language vs. target-language cluster frequencies in speech perception. Against the background of usage-based linguistics and connectionist models of speech perception and production, this book expounds the mechanisms at work during the processing of consonant clusters. It discusses their role as potential units in speech perception and explores possibilities for consonant clusters having their own mental representations. A striking parallel is revealed between perception and production of consonant clusters in terms of which factors and principles facilitate or hamper their processing. It is one of the first works to demonstrate frequency effects for consonant clusters. Sophia Wulfert studied General Linguistics at the Technische Universität Berlin and Scandinavian Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2015 to 2018, she was a member of the doctoral research training group "DFG GRK 1624: Frequency effects in language" at the University of Freiburg. This book is a revised version of her dissertation, which she defended in December 2021

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, , language: English, abstract: This term paper will give a descriptive summary of the sound patterns used in African American vernacular English, but will also go further by discussing the linguistic environments in which such patterns occur. It is restricted to the phonological features of the consonant system of African American vernacular English (AAVE) and does not deal with the characteristics of the vowel system. Furthermore, this term paper should show that speakers of AAVE do not haphazardly insert and delete sound and that it is not fair to evaluate the sounds as “lazy speech” since the patterns used in the sound system of AAVE are completely regular and the way in which sound combinations occur, is very systematic and based on defined rules. This work also tries to make clear what AAVE is and in which ways it is different and similar to general American and Standard English. The first chapter introduces two different theories about the question how African American English might have been developed. In some contexts, it has been suggested that the pattern of final consonant sounds in AAE has similarities with the pattern of final consonant sounds in West African languages. Part two deals with the feature of consonant cluster reduction, which has received the most attention in the phonological studies of AAE. Speakers do not always say the same thing the same way all the time, of course, so the percentage rate of reduction may be greater for some speakers than others Chapter 3 focuses on the fact that interdental fricatives, represented orthographically by th in Standard English, are often realized by labio- dental fricatives among some AAE speakers. It reveals that voicing value of consonant sounds plays a major role in the production of sounds. For example /f/ and /v/ occur in environments in which voiceless th and voiced th occur in Standard English. Part 4 concentrates on the feature of devoicing and especially on the correlation of the variable /d/ with social class. Data adopted from Wolfram helps to study the speech of Negroes from several socio- economic levels and shows the relationship between the use of sound patterns and extralingusitic factors. Chapter 5 continues the discussion of consonants, focusing on the liquids /r/ and /l/. It explains environments in which /r/ is not produced by speakers of AAE. The last chapter lists some other phonological features of AAVE, but not in a detailed way, as there is not enough data available.