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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter Mouton December 22, 2015

Portuguese Lexical Clusters and CVC Sequences in Speech Perception and Production

  • Conceição Cunha
From the journal Phonetica

Abstract

Thi s paper investigates similarities between lexical consonant clusters and CVC sequences differing in the presence or absence of a lexical vowel in speech perception and production in two Portuguese varieties. The frequent high vowel deletion in the European variety (EP) and the realization of intervening vocalic elements between lexical clusters in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) may minimize the contrast between lexical clusters and CVC sequences in the two Portuguese varieties. In order to test this hypothesis we present a perception experiment with 72 participants and a physiological analysis of 3-dimensional movement data from 5 EP and 4 BP speakers. The perceptual results confirmed a gradual confusion of lexical clusters and CVC sequences in EP, which corresponded roughly to the gradient consonantal overlap found in production.


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*Dr. phil. Conceição Cunha, Schellingstrasse 3, DE-80799 Munich (Germany), E-Mail karger@karger.com E-Mail cunha@phonetik.uni-muenchen.de

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Received: 2014-07-01
Accepted: 2015-09-27
Published Online: 2015-12-22
Published in Print: 2015-12-01

© 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel

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