A two-case study of coarticulation in stuttered speech. An articulatory approach

ABSTRACT

This study aims to describe the coarticulatory behaviour in stuttered speech from an articulatory point of view. Its purpose is to assess the nature of transitions between a stuttered phone and preceding and subsequent phones. Two persons who stutter were recorded by means of an electromagnetic articulograph while reading a text. The vertical movements of upper and lower lips, tongue body, tongue tip and mandible were extracted. They were then analysed during a stuttering moment and linked to the acoustic type of disfluency. Our findings showed several configurations of coarticulatory behaviour in terms of supraglottic articulatory movements. While disfluencies can be the result of a disrupted coarticulatory configuration, no systematicity has been found. Moreover, all acoustic types of disfluencies are represented in several coarticulatory configurations. Therefore, a stuttering-like disfluency is not always due to a coarticulatory disturbance, since correct coarticulatory patterns can be observed both between the disfluent sound and its previous and subsequent sounds. Furthermore, they suggest that the acoustic classification of disfluencies does not seem important for the coarticulatory behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Stuttering
• coarticulation
• electromagnetic articulography
• adults who stutter

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the two subjects, A. and I., for their participation to this study. We are also grateful to Slim Ouni and the Equipex Ortolang for their help with the acquisition. This study was funded by the project BENEPHIDIRE, project number (ANR-18-CE36-0008) of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l’Autonomie.

Declaration of Interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche [ANR-18-CE36-0008];Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l’Autonomie [ANR-18-CE36-0008].