Phonetic characterisation of musical articulation: The case of txistu

ABSTRACT

This article presents a description, in strictly phonetic terms, of the tonguing of a straight flute: the txistu. First, it identifies the linguistic articulation most resembling tonguing, which is not, as often claimed, dentoalveolar [$\text{t}$] or [t], but prepalatal [$\text{c}$]. Next, it examines different phases of tonguing, around the major moments of (consonantal) shutting and (vowel) opening. Throughout the paper, a variety of experimental phonetics materials and techniques are used, such as MRI imaging, endoscopy, electropalatography and spectrography.

KEYWORDS:

• Experimental phonetics
• musical articulation
• tonguing
• flutes

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Ana María Fernández Planas for her helpful suggestions of the first draft of this work, and Jon Ortiz de Urbina for his exhaustive correction of the final version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.