The combined use of EPG and EMA in articulatory descriptions

Abstract

A number of relatively non-invasive recording and transduction techniques for the analysis and description of continuous speech are now available to the speech scientist and speech pathologist. Two of these techniques are electropalatograpy (EPG) and electromagnetic articulography (EMA). The use of EPG allows us to record and display details of the patterns of tongue contact with the roof of the mouth during continuous speech. The use of EMA provides a two-dimensional midsagittal display of the articulatory movements of the tongue. The combined and coordinated use of these two techniques gives us a clearer and more complete picture of what goes on inside the mouth during continuous speech than the use of either technique alone. This is exemplified by reference to a study of the Norwegian coronal stops /t, d/ and // which shows that the combined use of EMA and EPG brings out articulatory differences between the two sets of plosives that are not apparent when using EPG or EMA alone.

Keywords:

• Electropalatography
• electromagnetic articulography
• articulatory description